♦ LIBMRY OF CONGRESS Jl 



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UNITED STATES OP AMERICA, n 



TH K 



DIVINE BEING 

As Revealed by Himself; 



OR, 



The Reality of Things 



AS TAUGHT IN 



THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



/ 

By John Kent, Trenton, N. J. 




TRENTON, N. J. r 
MacCrellish & QuiGLEY, Steam Book and Job Printers. 

1877. 



^x'- 

.\(^^ 



Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1877, 

BY JOHN KENT, 

in the Otfice of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 

All Rights reserved. 



AUTHOR'S NOTE. 



In the production of this, the author has not only rigidly 
confined himself to the realities of the Sacred Volume, but, 
in order to simplify the facts presented, has, in a measure, 
conformed to Scriptural phraseology, and, by dividing the 
work into fifty distinct parts, has divested it of even the sem- 
blance of complexity. So that, though it is one compact, 
and each article forms a legitimate member of the whole, each 
article may be considered as a distinct part. Hence, while its 
open form will not make it any the less acceptable to the 
penetrating and retentive mind, it will shorten the task of 
those less gifted, and facilitate the comprehension of all. 
Yet, while each part may be read as a distinct article, it is 
certainly best to know the end before the beginning is posi- 
tively sanctioned or fully condemned. 



C 



PREFACE, 



It is no uncommon thing for men to conceive the 
idea of being the author of something agreeable 
to their particular theories, whether ecclesiastical or 
scientific, and then to work in accordance with the 
preconceived notions or prejudices which prompted 
the undertaking, thus laying their foundation 
w^herever it may happen to suit, and extending 
their fabric to whatever dimensions may be most 
convenient. And this course has been more partic- 
ularly confined to those who, of late days, have 
endeavored to place themselves before the world as 
the expounders of the Holy Word; w^ho seem to 
teach as though they had forgotten that God's Word 
is still extant, and as though they had never known 
that it is its own interpreter, and that, notwith- 
standing all the mystifying, perverting, and all the 
absurdities that are presented to the world as Scrip- 
ture, the Word of God is still the same. But the 
reader of this will soon discover that its contents, 
instead of being the offspring of some sectarian 
research, are what the plain language of Scripture 
teaches; that it is the Word of God as God has 
spoken it ; that it teaches concerning God as God 



6 

has revealed Himself unto us ; and that it treats of 
man according to that which man is ; that its dis- 
crimination between men and angels, between the 
natural life and the spiritual life, between saint and 
sinner, between body and soul, and soul and spirit, 
and all its peculiar features, are not only in harmony 
with, but are the plain teachings of Scripture ; and 
that the Scriptures, unmixed with the erroneous 
teachings of man, are perfect harmony. And in 
order to more clearly display this harmony and 
expose the erroneous teachings referred to, it has 
been an object of special, attention to avoid that 
accumulation of evidence and unnecessary refer- 
ences which call the mind from the regular course 
of the subject and are both embarrassing and 
tedious. And considering that all are or may be 
easily informed concerning chapter and verse of 
the particular passages quoted, and regarding it as 
necessary that all should search and see whether 
these things are so, it seems to be more of a display 
of frankness and wisdom to induce this search than 
to load a work with unnecessary or useless materials. 
But because this is the case, it must not be inferred 
that thei^e has been a leaf unturned, or that there is 
any Scripture omitted for want of harmony, or that 
there is anything herein contained which will not 
harmonize with any or all other Scripture ; neither 
should any suppose that the [iuthor is not pre- 
pared to answer for all that is herein contained, or 
to whatever it may call forth. For it is not the 



result of a few months' labor, nor the surface work 
of years, but the deep fathoming of the fountain of 
truth, through many years of solitary study that 
has been unchained and free from sectarianism, and 
governed only by the teachings of the Holy Spirit 
and the dictates of reason and common sense. 



TO THE CHRISTIAN. 



And when I say Christian, I mean a disciple of 
the Lord Jesus Christ : one who has been '' begot- 
ten with the truth," and '^ born not of blood, nor of 
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
God " ; one who has realized the enlightening power 
of the Holy Spirit pointing him to the '^ Lamb of 
God that taketh away the sin of the world " ; one 
who realized his lost condition while in a state of 
sin ; one who has realized that for Christ's sake his 
sins have been forgiven, and that he is reconciled to 
God ; one who has realized that he has '' passed from 
death unto life becp^use he loves the brethren, and 
because that God hath given unto him of His holy 
spirit '' ; one who has '' put off the old man with his 
deeds," and become a new creature in Christ Jesus ; 
one who believes that '^ the Scripture of old came 
not by man, neither by the will of man, but that 
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost " ; one who has embraced the life and 
teachings of Christ, and the teachings of the apos- 
tles, as an all-suiBcient and only rule of faith and 
practice. Hence, as this embraces the reality of the 
Christian, it is not for him to learn, but to remem- 



10 

ber, that the Scriptures are the Word of God ; and 
that the Word of God is what teaches us who and 
what God is, and that whatever the Word tells us 
He is, that is what He is ; for He alone can tell us 
who He is or what He is. So that, as He is the one 
and only living and true God, and is just that which 
He has revealed Himself to be in His own Holy 
Word, to believe, as so many do, that He is a being 
so very different from that which He has revealed 
Himself to be, seems more like believing in some 
other God than it does like believing in Him ; there- 
fore, it is for all to believe that God is just the being 
that He has revealed Himself to be, and that to 
believe or teach differently from this, is to believe 
or teach falsely : as much so, at least, as to believe 
or teach falsely in any other respect. 

And, again, we should remember that we have a 
right to believe that God is just the being that He 
tells us He is, and that we have no right to believe 
anything to the contrary. Tor if we reject God 
as He has revealed Himself unto us, and believe in 
some other sort of Deity, then our faith is in that 
something else. But if we believe in God as He 
has revealed Himself unto us, then our faith and 
hope is in God. And inasmuch as all that we know 
of our own origin is derived from the Scriptures, 
and inasmuch as it is God who has revealed unto us 
the creation, the manner of creation, and the mate- 
rials of which man was created, to reject this 
knowledge is as positively rejecting the Word of 
God as rejecting any other part of it would be. 



11 

And if we arrogate to ourselves a nature which 
does not belong to us, we are certainly denying the 
truth as revealed in God's Word concerning our 
nature. And if we clothe ourselves with an attri- 
bute that belongs to God, we are not only rejecting 
the Scriptures, but adorning ourselves with that of 
which we have robbed Him. Hence, it is for all 
who love God to adhere with the utmost stability to 
the plain teachings of the Divine Being as revealed 
by Himself in His own Holy Word. 



TO THE INFIDEL OR SKEPTIC. 



The question with you is not as to whether this is 
true or whether it is false, but the question with you 
should be, is this which is herein contained in reality 
the teachings of Scripture ? For your free agency 
places you on the same basis of responsibility, and 
gives you the privilege of doubting the Scriptures, 
the same as it gives me and others the privilege of 
believing them. For " Faith cometh by hearing," 
that is, comes through or is created by hearing the 
facts in the case. But it should be remembered that 
while it is in perfect harmony with reason and com- 
mon sense to believe, in accordance with the evi- 
dence concerning and the truthfulness of that which 
is presented, to doubt or reject according to the will 
or wishes is just as inconsistent w^ith that same 
reason and common sense. So that if we believe 
contrary to the truth, it is foolishness; and if we dis- 
believe or reject contrary to the truth, it is just as 
foolish. And, inasmuch as you doubt the Scriptures, 
of which this treats, it would be contrary to the 
teachings of this volume to suppose you under the 
necessity of believing it, any farther than the har- 
mony and plain truthfulness of its pages might 



14 

remove from your mind the idea that the erroneous 
or absurd doctrines that are so prevalent at the 
present day are the teachings of Scripture, and so 
far as it affects your reason and is capable of con- 
vincing you of the reality of things as taught in the 
Holy Scriptures. 



WHAT THIS LITTLE VOLUME 
TEACHES. 



This volume teaches that in the Sacred Scriptures 
are revealed the will and workings of Him whose 
name is Jah, or Jehovah. It teaches that the Scrip- 
tures mark out the path of the Christian, and show 
the infidel his situation. It shows that the Scriptures 
teach us, in the plainest language, that Jesus Christ 
was the Son of God, simply because God was His 
Father ; and that Jesus Christ was God, simply 
because His Father was God; and that all Jesus 
Christ was or is. His Father, Jehovah, made Him. It 
shows that the Scriptures teach us, in the most com- 
prehensive manner, that man is the image of his Cre- 
ator, and that God is a personal being, in likeness or 
form resembling man ; and that the operations of the 
Holy Spirit are the reachings out, the goings forth 
of God, who comprehendeth all things within the 
scope of His own personal self. It shows that the 
Father and Son are two distinct beings, and that 
their oneness exists in the reality of the nature of 
God being one of the natures of Jesus Christ, in 
which nature there is no separation. It shows that 
the Scriptures teach us that before man was created 
it was determined that he should be a free agent ; 



16 

that man became a sinful being by choice and not 
necessity, and that the foreordaining of Christ was 
not positive in its nature, but was a provision made 
in man's behalf in case that he should fail to use his 
liberty in accordance with the Divine will. It 
teaches that the whole plan of salvation, though 
completed before the creation of man, is in perfect 
harnrtony with his free agency, from the day that he 
was created to the day of judgment. It teaches 
that Christ, as the Word, was not in the beginning, 
and shows that the being manifested in the flesh, 
His being in the world and the world being made 
by Him ; His being sent unto the world ; His being 
rich and becoming poor, were in perfect harmony 
with the fact that His first existence was when He 
was born of the Virgin Mary. It shows that though 
He is equal with God, He is not, never was, and 
never can be equal to Him. It shows that Christ 
being glorified that he might glorify His Father, 
and His being glorified with His Father's own self, 
are two things and transpired at two particularly 
different periods. It shows that the family of which 
Jesus was the first-born Son, was composed of at least 
nine persons. It shows that the Scriptures teach us 
that the union of the Divine nature with that of 
humanity constituted the existence of Jesus Christ, 
and that though the Virgin Mary was no more the 
mother of God than she was the mother of her own 
existence, she was the mother of all that Jesus Christ 
was. It shows that the Scriptures teach that there 
is no immortality in man, that faith is an inherency 



17 

of our nature, and that predestination, as taught by 
those Avho are termed predestinarianists, is a scandal 
against the Almighty. It simplifies the question 
of the resurrection, and presents its practicability 
plainly before the eyes of man. It shows that the 
mind is not the spirit, and that the breath of life and 
the physical organism is what, and all that, con- 
stitutes the soul. It shows the reality of conversion, 
the folly of doubts, the sense and necessity of com- 
munion, the origin, nature and necessity of baptism, 
and shows the difference between baptism and 
sprinkling. It shows that the Scriptures teach us 
that the soul and spirit are two, and that they show 
us the difference between them. It treats of the 
judgment and the Judge, of the devil or Satan and 
hell, and of the finale of the earth, the righteous 
and the wicked. It shows how it was that Moses 
was at the transfiguration, and how the spirits are 
in prison. It analyzes the question of Christ's 
answer to the thief, and shows the nature of the 
case in regard to those who had fallen asleep. It 
shows the consistency of accepting the parable of 
the rich man and Lazarus as figurative, and shows 
that the earthly house of our tabernacle is the world 
in which we live. It shows w^hat the Scriptures 
teach us concerning Melchisedec, and how Christ is 
a priest afer his order; that Christ is personally 
present at the right hand of the Father, and that 
spiritually He is present with His saints. It shows 
what the apostles knew about the nature of Christ, 
and the reality of their faith in Him ; and closes 
1* 



18 

with the death and the nature of the death of the 
Son of God, who was begotten by Himself and born 
of the Virgin Mary ; and plainly shows through all 
this course that the mystical teachings concerning 
the Divine Being, the nature of Jesus Christ, the 
nature of man, and of the future state, are mytho- 
logical in their origin, heretical in their nature, and 
are in direct antagonism with the realities of the 
Holy Scriptures. 



Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man. 

Jesus Christ was the Son of God, because God 
was His Father ; for this reason and no other. Jesus 
Christ was God because His Father was God ; for 
this reason and no other. And upon these facts 
Jesus based His claims to Divinit}^, first, to being 
the Son of God because God was His Father; 
secondly, to being God because His Father was 
God; and, for the same reason. He thought it not 
robbery to make Himself equal with God. He was 
not man because God was His Father, but because 
the Virgin Mary was His mother. And, with respect 
to the nature of Christ, it is as essential to know 
that He is man, as it is to know that He is God. 
And, when we look at the positiveness of His 
humanity, the fact that He was born of the Virgin 
Mary, grew up in the family of Joseph, was associ- 
ated with His brethren and sisters, learned the car- 
penter's trade, lived to be about thirty years old, then 
traversed the land of Judea for three years, preach- 
ing the Gospel of the Kingdom, laboring in traveling, 
becoming hungry and thirsty, eating and drinking ; 
seeing all this in Jesus, and knowing that it is the 
result of His being the offspring of a woman, the 
case with respect to His humanity is settled. And 
why should it be any the less clear and positive that 



20 

He is God, being the Son of God, than it is that He 
is man, being the son of man ? For the wonderful 
development as the result of His being the Son of 
God, manifested His Divinity in the same reality that 
the foregoing did His humanity. And if His being 
the son of Mary would make Him man, surely His 
being the Son of God would make Him God. And 
thus it is that He is God, and thus it is that He is 
man. And as regards the humanity of Christ, His 
death does not annul it in the least sense, for the fact 
that He was man, is man, and ever will be man, God 
has shown in the clearest manner, when it is declared 
that '^ There is one God, and one mediator between 
God and man, the 'man Christ Jesus, '^ and when He 
declares that '' He hath appointed a day in the which 
He will judge the world in righteousness by that 
man whom He hath ordained.'' As regards his 
humanity, God created Jesus Christ, thus making 
Him a part of Mary, a part of man ; as regards His 
Divinity, He imparted to Him His own nature, thus 
making Him a part of Himself, a part of God. For 
we do not say that God creates God, but He creates 
man, and thus He created Jesus ; but in that He is 
His son. He is the only begotten, and thus a part of 
Himself. Now, if God, in creating Jesus, imparted 
to Him His own nature, which it is impossible to be 
otherwise than that He did, and thereby made Him 
part of Himself, God, why should it be considered 
strange that He of omniscient nature should look 
to the glory of that nature, and desire the sufferings 
to be over through which He had to pass, and to be 



21 

crowned with the glory which His Divine nature 
ultimately required, and which it had with the 
Father before the world was? Nevertheless, it is 
not likely that it will not be considered strange, that 
Jesus is God simply because His Father is God, but 
the fact must not be lost sight of that He is man, 
simply because He is the son of Mary. Again, with 
respect to the nature of Christ, it is well to know 
that He was not only known as a man and called a 
man, but that His own claims to humanity were just 
as definite as His claims to Divinity. For, when He 
questioned His disciples concerning His nature. He 
said : " Who say they that I, the Son of Man, am ?" 
Here, as though He feared that they would fail to 
declare 11 is humanity, or do as many others might 
have done, say that lie was not a man but a god. 
He cuts it short and makes it necessary for them 
first to understand that He is a man, and then to 
tell Him who this man is. And thus His own lips 
afiarmed His humanity, as positively as the w^onder- 
ful miracles which He performed confirmed the fact 
that He was Divine. And when the Son of God 
stood before Pilate it was the Son of Mary that 
stood there. And when the Son of Mary was nailed 
to the cross it was the Son of God that was nailed 
there. And when He was laid in the tomb it was 
their son that was laid or buried there ; and when 
He arose it was this same being, as literally as when 
He stood before Pilate. For the evidence that He 
gave of Himself after His resurrection, was that He 
was not a spirit, but flesh and bone. And it is evi- 



22 

dent that without His humanity He could not have 
been Christ, any more than He could have been 
Christ without His Divinity, neither before His 
death nor after His resurrection. For '' The media- 
tor between God and man is the man Christ Jesus." 
But it must be remembered that He is God in the 
same reality that He is man, and that His claims to 
Divinity are as clear as His claims to humanity. 
And in anticipating His death He did not allow this 
to be lost sight of, for, saith He, ^'I have power to 
lay down my life, and I have power to take it again. '^ 
Man can lay down his life but he cannot take it again. 
Moreover, the inharmonious view of the resurrection 
of Jesus Christ does not exist in the facts in the case, 
for the fact that Jesus had power to take His life 
again does not interfere with the fact that God 
raised Him from the dead. For, in either case, 
whether it were the Father that raised Jesus from 
the dead, or whether Jesus took His life again, as 
He said He had power to take it, does not interfere 
with the facts in the case, but shows the insepara- 
ble unity of the Father and Son, as existing in the 
Divine nature of Jesus, as imparted to Him by the 
Father, when He was begotten of the Holy Ghost. 



Jesus Christ what G-od, His Father, made Him. 

All that Jesus Christ was, His Father, Jehovah, 
made Him, first by imparting to Him His own 
nature when He was begotten, and thus making 
Him God as Himself, and thenceforth bestowing 
upon Him all that power and dignity that is 
embraced in the terms ^' all power," " all the full- 
ness of God." " For it pleased the Father that in 
Him should all fullness dwell." But it does not 
follow, that because in Him dw^ells all the fullness of 
the Godhead, that he is that Godhead whose full- 
ness dw^ells in Him. And because all power is given 
unto Him of His Father, it does not follow^ that He 
is that Father w^ho gave Him that power. And 
what can manifest the essence of absurdity in a 
more conspicuous form than to say that Jesus Christ 
is the Son of God, and then to say that He is that 
God whose son He is? Yet it is evident that the 
theory tliat embraces the idea that in Christ dwells 
all that is God must necessarily embrace all the 
absurdity of the foregoing. But, for the present 
leaving these erroneous teachings where they exist, 
and adhering to the Scriptures, we see that it pleased 
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell 
(but if it had not pleased the Father it would surely 
have been otherw^ise); that He should be all that 



24 

was man, and in reality God. And thus He could 
be God with God, and man with man, and through 
His humanity He could be in sympathy with man, 
and through His Divinity He could be in harmony 
with God, the Father. Thus we see that He is all 
that is dignity, might and power, except that His 
Father is greater than He, and that all this miracu- 
lous working has been brought about through the 
will and working of Him whose name is Jah or 
Jehovah. 

For if God had had five sons, instead of one, each 
of them would have been God in the reality of God's 
own nature ; and each one would have been the son 
of God, just as Jesus Christ was Plis Son, and each 
one of them would have been the Eternal, just as 
much as Jesus was the Eternal. That is, if God 
had had four sons before Christ was born, and each 
had been born under the same circumstances, (for if 
God could have one son, He could have five or ten,) and 
then Christ had heen born, just as He in reality was, 
He would have been the Son of God precisely the 
same as the other four were, and would have been 
no more the Eternal God than they were. And 
thus we see that the reality of God in Christ was 
simply the Divine nature of His Father, and that, 
being of that nature, it could not be otherwise than 
that He was God, just as it could not be otherwise 
than that He was man, being of the nature of His 
mother, Mary. 



God a Personal Being-. 

The teachings of many concerning the Divine 
Nature or the Divine Being is so nearl)^ or exactly 
the reverse of the knowledge that He has given us 
of Himself, that it seems more like striving to 
destroy the truth than it does like an effort to 
maintain it. For there is about as much consistency 
in the teachings of many upon this subject as there 
is in saying that black is white, or that w4iite is 
white, and that black is white, too. For the question 
of mystery, as regards the Divine Being, exists in 
that which it hath not pleased Him to reveal unto 
us concerning Himself; but that which it hath 
pleased Him to reveal unto us is not mystery, but 
revelation, for revelation is mystery revealed. As 
for example, Paul says that " Without controversy 
great is the mystery of Godliness;" but in the next 
few sentences he explains the mystery, and it 
becomes a revelation. Thus the teachings of man 
and the teachings of Scripture difler. Man teaches 
that God is a being without body and parts, but the 
word of God teaches exactly the contrary, for when 
Moses desired to see God, God told him that no 
man could see His face and live. Thus, if God had 
told Moses that He was a Personal Being, there 
would have been but a shadow of difference between 
2 



26 

telling him this and telling him that " he could not 
see His face and live/' and it would not have been 
any the more positive than the fact that " God 
passed him on the mount so that Moses saw His 
hinder parts." So that God did not only tell Moses, 
but also showed him, that He was a Personal Being. 
Now, if I were to m.ake it appear that God is a 
different Being from that which He hath revealed 
Himself to be in His own Holy Word, I would be 
a liar against God, for I would be representing Him 
to be that which He is not. N'ow, when God said 
that He created man in His own image, He meant 
that that man which He created was the image of 
Himself, not of His spirit, or His holiness, or of any 
of His attributes, for he is a creature that can rep- 
resent no such an existence, neither is there any 
such image attributed to him by Divine authority; 
but it is His person that man is the image of, and 
man personal that is His image. And if man were 
not the image of God — and this is to be determined 
by the Scriptures, which are the only source from 
whence we derive the evidence concerning it — it 
would be necessary for the language of the Scrip- 
tures to be in quite a different form, or that it 
should be such as to convey the idea that he was 
not the image of his Creator. Now, the plain unin- 
cumbered teachings of Scripture concerning it is, 
that God proposed to make man in His own image, 
and that that image was to be the image of others 
besides Himself, because, says He, " Now let us 
make man in our image." And so it is evident 



27 

that there were those who bore His image before 
man was created, and hence it is not so wonderfully 
strange that man should have been created in the 
image of the Almighty. For the Scriptures teach us 
in the plainest language that man is not inferior to 
the angels, and it might have been some of these to 
whom man is not inferior, to whom He said, "Now 
let us make man in our image." For if the angels 
had been made in the image of God they would 
have been the ima2:e of Him, and so thev could 
have created man in their own image ; that is, God 
and the angels could have created man in their 
image, and then he would have been the image of 
them both. Hence, in order to carry out the idea 
that man is not the image of God, it would be 
necessary that the Scriptures should read thus, or 
similar: Now let us make man, not as I made you, 
in My own image, for I would not have such a 
being to be the image of Me. So man was made 
of the dust of the ground, but not in the image of 
God, for he was too mean a creature to bear any 
resemblance to Him. This is simply the opposite 
of the truth as recorded in Genesis, by which that 
truth must be supplanted before it can be made to 
appear that man is not the image of Jehovah, 
his Creator. And hence, when He said, in the like- 
ness of God made He man. He meant that that 
beino; which He had made was the likeness of Him- 
self. Therefore, if we know anything about the 
Word of God, we know that it says that He created 
man in His own image, and we know that Adam 



28 

begat a son in his likeness, after his own image. 
Now, if Adam was not a likeness of God, Seth was 
not a likeness of Adam. So, if we reject the one 
we must reject the other, and then we must reject 
the language that conveys to us the knowledge of 
God, and the only means by which we are to know" 
anything about the Creator whatever. And if we 
reject the knoAvledge which God has given us of 
Himself and of the creation of man, and the begin- 
ning of all things, it seems more like a farce to 
believe the rest than it does like the result of the 
operations of a sound mind or a pure heart. 

And in continuing this all-important subject, 
another significant fact with respect to the creation 
of man is brought to view in the commandment of 
God to Noah, when He says : " Whoso sheddeth 
man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in 
the image of God made He him." And here, also, 
is brought to view the great dignity or the greatness 
of the being, man, in that he is created in the image 
of God; and ihe truth, as it were, reflects back on 
itself, and shows forth in double clearness the fact 
that God, Jehovah, the Father of Jesus Christ, is 
not only a spiritual, but a Personal Being, in like- 
ness or form resembling man. And the shallow 
conceptions of many in regard to the Divine Being, 
might well be taught as a mystery, for the great 
mystery that they present to the world concerning 
Divinity, seems much better suited to mythology or 
morbid imagination, than it does to anything upon 
the face of Scripture, and is so foreign to consistency 



29 

that it would be well if it were altogether mystery. 
Thus, in this case, it is the same as in all similar 
ones, God presenting His truths, and men contra- 
dicting or perverting them; thus it ever has been, 
and thus it is now; for instead of men striving to 
unfold the truth, they are striving to cast a mist 
upon it, as though they were afraid of it themselves 
and afraid lest others should see and believe it for 
themselves. And it is becoming more and more 
evident every day, that upon this one all-important 
subject rests a mighty weight of importance, that 
now is and will henceforth affect the eternal inter- 
ests of mankind, by leading them through the har- 
monious channel of Scripture truth, or driving them 
into infidelity by mystifying, perverting and hiding 
the truth, and presenting in its stead their own 
paltry opinions, the views of certain fanciful church 
orators, erroneous creeds, willful pervertsons, and 
even such ideas or notions as are disgusting to com- 
mon sense. Yet, notwithstanding all this heretical 
teaching, it does not follow that there is not that 
more sober-minded, sound-thinking, truth-loving 
class in the world, whose devotion to Scripture 
enables them to lay hold of the truth with unbroken 
faith, and receive and believe it as it is. 

And now the further consideration of the subject 
points to the language of James, who, in speaking 
of the tongue, says that " Therewith bless wx God, 
even the Father; and therewith curse we men 
which are made after the similitude of God." And 
if it hath pleased the Almighty to create man after 



30 

the similitude of Himself, why should man be such 
a stubborn or perverse creature as to contradict the 
similarity that exists between himself and his Crea- 
tor, when it is God Himself who tells us that thus He 
hath made him. Moreover, the Apostle, in speak- 
ing of God's dear Son, says that ''He is the image 
of the invisible God." Now, we know that the Son 
of God is the Man Christ Jesus, and we know that 
the Invisible God is His Father, and we know 
that it would be impossible for Christ to be the 
image of His Father unless His Father was a being 
whom Christ, as His image, could represent. Yet, 
Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, sweeps every 
shadow from the face of the subject, and leaves it as 
clear as crystal, when he says that "Christ is the 
express image of His Father's Person." This one 
sentence is enouo;h of itself to establish the truth of 
all that has been said upon the subject, and shows 
forth in the most comprehensible, unmistakable 
manner that Jehovah, the Father of Jesus Christ, is 
not only a Spirit, but a Personal Being, whose 
likeness or form may be seen in the likeness or 
form of His Son Jesus Christ. Hence, it is as true 
as Scripture is true, and as plain as language can 
make it plain, that man personal is the image of his 
Maker, and that God is a Personal Being in likeness 
or form resembling man. And the great reason 
why the life of man is so precious in the sight of 
God is because he is the image of Him, which is 
clearly shown by the words : " Whoso sheddeth 
man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in 



31 

the image of God made He him." Thus we see 
that it is the man, that 'personal being ^ that has the 
blood that can be shed^ that is the image of God. And 
if it be asked, are all men the image of God? that 
question is answered distinctly and unmistakably 
by the Apostle as just quoted, when, speaking of the 
Son of God, he said that He was '' The brightness 
of His glory, and the express image of His Person.'' 
AVhich is equivalent to saying that that which 
was brightness and glory in Christ was the bright- 
ness and glory of His Father, and that the Per- 
son Jesus or Jesus Personal was the express image 
of His Father's Person. That is, the Son of God, 
the Son of Mary, the man Jesus, was not only 
like or similar to, or made after the similitude of 
God, but that He w^as the express image of His 
Father's Person. Hence it is, that to worship a 
God whose person Jesus Christ is not the express 
image of, is to worship a God who is not the Father 
of Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ is the express 
image of His Father's Person. And though Jesus 
might not have been the express image of His 
brethren, of His disciples, and of those around Him, 
yet there was no marked dissimilarity, neither was 
there any imperfection, and hence it is that in the 
fullest acceptance of the term man is the image of 
his Creator, and also in the fullest acceptation of 
the term, God is a Personal Being, in likeness or 
form resembling man. 



God the Father. 

To convey to the mind a full, comprehensible 
view, or to give a clear understanding of the Divine 
Being, is not to be considered a small thing. And 
those who would have a clear understanding of the 
same, must not only perform the shallow task of 
reading but must allow their minds to take hold of 
the depth of the subject, instead of skimming its 
surface, and, laying aside the veil of sectarian preju- 
dice, look the truth full in the face without being 
afraid to believe it. To enable the mind to com- 
prehend the nature of the Divine Being, there is 
nothing that can be presented that more clearly 
illustrates it than that mighty orb, the Sun; yet, 
when we consider that this is the workmanship of 
Him of whom we are speaking, even this illustra- 
tion must be considered a very feeble one. Still, 
when we lift our eyes towards heaven, and see how 
this mighty wonder of creation operates, we can 
learn a lesson that we can get from no other source. 
For, when we behold it, we see nothing but bright- 
ness, nothing but light, and when we go forth in 
the morning the darkness has vanished before it, 
and all nature is brightened witli its rays of light ; 
and, again, we see its warming, cheering effects 
upon all creation, and, realizing its salutary effect 



33 

upon our own bodies and minds, we rejoice at its 
first appearance in the morning, and are loath to 
have the storm-cloud hide it from our view. And 
all these bright beams which illuminate the earth, 
all this w^armth and congeniality, are the reachings 
forth, the goings out, of the Sun ; and though we 
experience these goings forth of the Sun every day, 
there is no diminution, no less of that which was 
the day before or the last year. They are the same 
bright beams, the same warmth and congeniality, 
that have been sent forth since the creation. 

And similar is the going forth of God For the 
searching of all things, the existence everywhere, 
the all-seeing, the all-knowing, and the all-power 
manifested everywhere and in all things, must come 
from somewhere ; and it comes from that center. 
His own Personal Self. As in the creation, the Word 
says that ''the Spirit of God moved upon the face of 
the waters. ^^ This is a going out, a going forth, of 
God ; this is a manifestation, not of power only, but 
of God's own self, who is the power. And David 
says: ''Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit; or 
whither shall I flee from Thy presence ? If I ascend 
up into heaven. Thou art there. If I make my bed 
in hell, behold. Thou art there. If I take the wings 
of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of 
the sea; Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy 
right hand shall hold me." Thus David realized 
the nature of the Divine Being, and gave utterance 
to these expressions which show forth the goings 
out of God and His existence everywhere. For 



34 

there is no division in God, no dismemberment or 
separation from Himself. Moreover, with respect 
to everything being manifest in His sight, David 
gives the clearest evidence, when he says : '' If I say 
surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night 
shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth 
not from Thee ; but the night shineth as the day. 
The darkness and the light are both alike to Thee." 
And if one half-farthing's worth of all to which 
God has given life cannot escape His notice, it is 
useless to entertain any idea contrary to that which 
teaches that everything is manifest in His sight, and 
that the all-seeing and searching are the goings out 
of God : " For the Spirit searcheth all things, even 
the deep things of God. And who knoweth the 
things of a man but the spirit of man, which is in 
him ; so, also, the things of God knoweth no man, 
but the Spirit of God." And wherever the Spirit 
of God is, there He is present. The spirit of man 
is not the person of man ; neither is the Spirit of 
God the person of God. The spirit of man is not a 
separate being from himself, neither is the Spirit of 
God a separate being from Himself. But the goings 
out of God, the. all-knowing, the all-seeing and 
searching, and the existence or the manifestations 
of the Spirit of God everywhere, are no separation 
in the Being, God, but are the goings forth ot 
Jehovah, who comprehends all things within the 
scope of His own Personal Self. 



The Spirit of God. 

With respect to the Spirit of God, we know that 
God spiritually is everywhere. But, considering 
the nature of things as they now exist, and as they 
existed before the birth of Christ, it is not only 
proper but necessary to particularize. And when 
we get a clear view of the nature of things or the 
facts of the case in regard to the conception of Jesus 
Christ bj^ the Virgin Mary, and His being begotten 
by the Holy Ghost, we see in this a particular mani- 
festation of the Spirit of God; and see that creative 
power, that miraculous working that shows that it is 
the presence or being present of His own self, as 
embraced in the words, '^Thou art My Son, this day 
have I begotten Thee." And, as said the angel, 
'' The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the 
power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; 
therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of 
thee shall be called the Son of God." Here is a 
particular manifestation of the Spirit and of the 
power, and w^e see, as the result of this manifesta- 
tion, the existence of Jesus Christ, who is the only 
begotten of the Father, the only begotten Son of 
God. Hence we see that the manifestation of the 
Holy Ghost is the spiritual presence of God, and 
that His spiritual presence is the reaching out, the 



36 

going forth, of His own personal self. Thus in this 
we see a particular manifestation of the Spirit of 
God. 

And when John was " sent before to preach the 
baptism of repentance to the children of Israel," 
and knew that he was the forerunner of the Holy 
One, Jesus made His appearance among them, but 
John knew Him not, and the only wa}^ that he was to 
know Him was by a particular manifestation of the 
Spirit of God. And when He had been baptized and 
come up out of the water, " Lo, the heavens were 
opened unto Him, and he saw the Spirit of God 
descending like a dove and lighting upon Him, and 
there came a voice from heaven, saying, ' This is My 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" Thus 
we see in this manifestation the visible presence of 
the Spirit of God upon the earth, and the audible 
voice of God from heaven. And as " God was 
manifest in the flesh," so He was "justified in the 
Spirit," that is, proved to be God by the visible pres- 
ence of the Spirit of God resting upon Him, and the 
audible voice of the Father, declaring that He was 
His Son, and that in Him He was well pleased. And 
after being '' led by the Spirit into the wilderness," 
and being tempted of the devil, and gaining the vic- 
tory there, behold angels came and ministered unto 
Him. Thus He was seen of angels. And from thence 
He went forth to preach to the Jews, and to be preached 
to the Gentiles; and this being fulfilled, together 
with His being " believed on in the world and 
received up into glory," the mystery of godliness 



37 

was finished, and thus the mystery became a revela- 
tion. Again, when after the death, resurrection and 
ascension of the Lord, " The day of Pentecost was 
fully come, they were all with one accord in one 
place. And suddenly there came a sound from 
Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled 
all the house where they were sitting. And there 
appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire, and 
it sat upon each of them. And they were all tilled 
with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other 
tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.'' Here 
is another particular manifestation of the Spirit of 
God, in the sound from heaven as of a rushing 
mighty wdnd, and in the visible cloven tongues as 
of fire, and in their beins; all filled with the Holv 
Ghost. Now the recipients of this manifestation 
were the Apostles, and this manifestation was a ful- 
fillment of the promise of Christ, for, saith He, " I 
will pray the Father and He will give you another 
Comforter that He may abide with you." Thus the 
Apostles, the chosen ones of Christ, were endowed 
with power from on high, and thus prepared for the 
work that was before them. Moreover, we see that 
this manifestation was the w^ork of Christ, for, saith 
the Apostle, " He having received of the Father the 
promise of the Holy Ghost, hath shed forth this 
which ye now see and- hear." For the all-power 
conferred on Christ embraced also the manifesting 
of the Spirit as proceeding from Himself For, as 
it pleased the Father " that in Him should all full- 
ness dwell," this manifesting of the Spirit is a part 



38 

of that fullness, and, therefore, we see that in Him 
" dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;" 
Moreover, we see that this manifesting of the Spirit 
is the going forth of Christ, who being God by 
nature, in that He is Jehovah's Son, and having all 
power conferred upon Him, is the mighty God. 
And His presence with His church, or His spiritual 
existence in every one of His saints, is no separation 
from Himself, but is the reachings out, the going 
forth of His own self. For who is it that enjoys the 
presence of the Spirit of God and realizes that he 
has '' Christ in him, the hope of glory," who does 
not understand it as the connecting link between 
himself and his Redeemer ? Yea, and God dwelling 
in him, he realizes an existence that reaches from 
Christ Personal to himself. 

According to the foregoing facts, that is, according 
to the plain teachings of the Word of God, it is not 
only probable but positive, that in the beginning of 
creation there was but one God, and that that one 
is He who has revealed Himself to us in His Word 
as the living and true God. That Personal Being 
who, though He had told Moses thiit he could not 
see His face and live, nevertheless, passed him on 
tlie mount in such a manner as to show Moses His 
hinder parts; that Personal Being whose Spirit is 
the Holy Ghost. Hence it is as foolish to contradict 
the fact that God is a Personal Being as it is to con- 
tradict the fact that He is a Spiritual Being. For 
as the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of God, the Personal 
Being whom Moses saw when he was on the mount 



39 

is the God whose Spirit the Holy Ghost is. And 
hence how plain it is that God is a Personal as w^ell 
as a Spiritual Being, and that the manifestations of 
the Spirit of God are the rcachings out the goings 
forth of His own personal self, who is the Lord, 
Jehovah. And it must be remembered that what 
has been said concerning the Divine Being, the 
creation and its results, before the birth of Jesus, is 
concerning them as prior to the existence of Christ. 
And that Christ did not exist before He was born of 
the Virgin Marj, except that when He was born He 
was God, as imparted to Him by the Father when 
He begat Him, and thus was God by nature, in which 
nature there is no separation. And this God or God- 
nature which He was after He was begotten, is the 
God or God-nature that He w^as before the world 
was. But He was not Christ before the world was, 
for Christ was the Son of God. And He was not 
the Son of God before the world was, for His mother 
was not in existence. And He could not have been 
the Son of God until God had begotten llim, and 
this did not take place until the days of Herod, and 
after the delivery of the message, by the angel, con- 
cerning it. And He was not the Son of God until 
lie wn.s the son of Mary, as, said the angel, '^ there- 
fore t]iat holy thing that shall be born of thee shall 
be called the Son of God." 



The Oneness of the Two Distinct Beings. 

Inasmuch as the foregoing teaches that there are 
two distinct beings in which dwells the one God, it 
will be well to give particular attention to the Scrip- 
tural facts with respect to the particular oneness of 
the two distinct beings, which facts will be embraced 
in the consideration of the more difficult passages 
relating to the subject under their respective heads. 
But before proceeding any further, it must be 
remembered that according to that which it hath 
pleased the Almighty to reveal unto us concerning 
Himself, it is clear and positive that there is but 
one Person in the Godhead, or that the Godhead is 
one Person who is that Personal and Spiritual Being, 
Jehovah, and that the Person Jesus is not in the 
Godhead, but that the fullness of the Godhead is in 
Him, and that though He is God by nature as im- 
parted to Plim by the Father, and that in Him 
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that 
before the birth of Jesus Christ there was but one 
Being that was God, or that possessed any of the 
attributes of God, and that Jesus, the Son of God, 
did not exist any more than Levi did when Abraham 
met Melchisedec, and ''Levi, as it were, paid tithes 
in Abraham." And now, as the foundation is the 
first part of all things, and has been the first con- 



41 

siderecl in the foregoing, so now, in its continuance, 
we can see the foundation of the so-called mystery 
by tracing it through the facts as presented in the 
Scriptures, through which we can see that instead 
of its being what it once was, a partial mystery, it 
is now a glorious revelation. And the first thing 
to understand is the great principle or fact upon 
which our responsibility to God is based, which is 
so inseparably woven with the truth as revealed in 
I Peter, i : 20, as presented under the head of free 

agency and foreordination. 

2^ 



Free Agency and Poreordination. 

The idea that foreordination, as presented in the 
Scriptures, teaches that man is predestined to be 
saved or to be damned, is not only a falsity, but the 
reality of the case is exactly the reverse, as is clearly 
shown in connection with Him " who verily was 
foreordained before the foundation of the world, 
but was manifest in these last times/^ And it is 
evident that the being foreordained before the 
foundation of the world, as embraced in the fore- 
going, is not only consistent with the nature of 
things as embraced in the plan of salvation, but that 
it brings within its scope that great and inseparable 
truth — the fact that man is a free agent. And as 
this foreordination teaches us concerning things as 
existing before the foundation of the world, it not 
only points to the Lamb without blemish and with- 
out spot, " who verily was foreordained before the 
foundation of the world," but necessarily embraces 
all those facts connected with that foreordination, 
and places plainly before us the fact that the being 
foreordained before the foundation of the world 
was not, as is almost or quite universally supposed, 
that it was determined before the foundation of the 
world that Christ should be slain or die for the sins 
of the world; and that the fall of man and his 



43 

becoming a sinful being was an inevitable result of 
his creation. JSTo; but when man was created he 
w^as created a free agent, and it would have been 
impossible for him to have been a free agent and 
at the same time to have been controlled by a per- 
son or power that prevented him from choosing to 
do evil or to do good. 

Hence, when the creation of man was contem- 
plated by the Almightj^ and it was determined that 
he should be what he is, a free agent, the fact that 
he might choose evil rather than good, was not 
overlooked by the Almighty. And, as all things 
were prepared for him in case of his obedience, so 
was provision made for him in case that he should 
fall. And this provision was embraced in Him who 
" was manifest in these last times," and who was 
" verily foreordained before the foundation of the 
world," not that man should fall and that He should 
be slain, but that if man should fall, that then He 
was to be the ransom, and Avould die for man. 
Hence, we see why " God so loved the world that 
He gave His only begotten Son to die for us." 
For He did not only love His Son before He was 
in existence, but He also loved man before he was 
created, for if He had not, it is certain that He 
would not have made such wonderful provision for 
him as was embraced in the sacrifice of His only 
begotten Son. So it is evident that the free agency 
of man is older than man himself, for it was deter- 
mined by the counsel and foreknowledge of his 
Creator before the foundation of the world. And 



44 

this free agency stands forth as the manifest dignity 
or greatness of man, and is the basis of tliat account- 
ability for which he is to be called to an account at 
the judgment, by Him who created him and endowed 
him with this dignifying attribute, and has shown 
such wonderful love towards him as is manifest in 
the ''gift of His only begotten Son,'' ''who verily 
was foreordained before the foundation of the 
world," not that He should die, but that if man 
should sin that then He was to become the ransom, 
and die for man. 



Jesus Christ's First Existence. * 

Lest anything in the foregoing shall be construed 
to imply that Jesus was God only what is termed 
spiritually, it will be well to carefully consider and 
keep in view that which has been said concerning 
His birth, and that the humanity of Christ had no 
father but God ; that God was the Father of all that 
Jesus was, and that this is why Jesus is the Son of 
God. Now, as regards the existence of Christ, we 
have first the message of the angel to the eJSfect that 
Christ should be born ; secondly, that God would 
be His Father, and, thirdly, that Mary would be His 
mother. And these three facts are significant of 
nothing more or less than the creation of or bring- 
ing into existence of the Son of God, Jesus Christ; 
and it is a fact that does not require any great mind 
to comprehend, that as Mary was His mother, He 
would be of the same nature as Mary, and that, as 
God was His Father, He w^ould be of the same 
nature as God, His Father. And His being in form 
a perfect man w^as in perfect harmony with the case, 
not only as regards His being the oflTspring of Mary, 



* Note. — The reader should be careful to remember that it is 
the realities of the Scriptures to which his attention should bo 
directed, and not sectarian notions. 



46 

but as a result of His being the Son of God, for 
man is the image of his Creator. Hence we see 
that He was man because Mary was his mother, and 
God because God was His Father, therefore, it is 
evident that as Christ was man because Mary was 
His mother, and God because God was His Father, 
that His first existence was when He was born of the 
Virgin Mary, for this was the Son of God, and He 
never had any other. And He w^as not God only 
what is termed spiritually, but the one part of His 
existence, one part of that of which He was created 
and constituted His being, was God ; and it is 
evident that as Jesus was God, the God or God- 
nature that He was, was God always; for as there 
is but one God this that He is must be a part 
of that God or God-nature that is one God ; and 
this is in perfect harmony with the words of Jesus, 
when He says, '' the Father that is in Me, He doeth 
the w^orks,'' that is, the Father, God, which Jesus 
was by nature, for there is no God but the Father 
of Jesus, and the Father was the God, or the God- 
nature of the Father was the Father that was in 
Him and did the works. Thus it is plain that Jesus 
was God as imparted to Him by the Father when 
He begat Him, and that God in Christ and God the 
father are identical, and are the same one nature 
now as before the world was ; thus it was that in 
the man Christ Jesus, God the Father, who was the 
God-nature of Jesus, was the Father that was in 
Him and did the works. And thus it is that He is 
in the Father and the Father in Him. And now, in 



47 

the consideration of the more difficult passages 
relating to the subject, it will be seen that instead 
of these passages casting a mist or doubt upon that 
which has been said, that they are in perfect har- 
mony with these truths, and are only a continuation 
of the same ; and that the Scriptures are not chaos 
and mystery, but h;irmony and revelation. 



In the Beginning" was the Word. 

" In the beginning was the word, and the word 
was with God, and the word was God. The same 
was in the beginning with God. All things w^ere 
made by Ilim; and without Him was not anything 
made that was made.'' — John^ I ch.^ 1st v. (In the 
beginning God was not without that Divinity or 
Divine nature that was afterward imparted to Jesus, 
and that God or God-nature that Jesus was, God 
in the beginning was not w^ithout; but that nature 
was with Him and was a part of Himself). 

Now, according to the first verse, the Word, or 
the Divine nature of Jesus, which w^as called the 
Word, was in the beginning, and was with God, and 
was God, a part of His own nature or self. But 
after the bringing into existence of the only begot- 
ten of the Father, then there was another being 
who was of the same nature as Himself, whose 
existence was the result of the union of that nature 
with that of humanity; and this Divine nature or 
Divinity is that which was in the beginning with 
God, and was God, and now is God in Christ. And 
so nothing that was made was made without Him or 
this Divine nature that He is, for when they were 
made this nature was with God and was not in 
Christ, for then Christ was not in existence. 



The World Knew Him Not. 

" He was in the world and the world was made by 
Him, and the world knew Him not." — John, I ch, 
10th V. It would be very unwise for one to say that 
the world did not know the man Jesus, a man who 
had lived to be about thirty-three years old, had 
spent three years publicly demonstrating the power 
of God as existing in Himself, and had suffered 
death upon the cross, through the perfidious work- 
ings of a degenerate people, who after His death 
charged His disciples with having filled Jerusalem 
with His doctrine. And it is evident that there were 
few men better known than the man Jesus. More- 
over this fact that they knew Him they sat up as a 
reason for doubting concerning His being the Son 
of God. As ' Thou, being a man, makest Thyself 
God." Yet " He was in the world and the world 
knew Him not." This is the positive assertion of 
the Apostle, and is certainly correct; and as it is 
evident that the world knew the man Jesus, who is 
it that the world did not know ? The Word says 
that " there was a man«sent from God, whose name 
was John. The same came for a witness to bear 
witness of the ligbt, that all men through Him 
might believe. Therefore that light which he was 
not, but which he bore witness to, is He who was in 
3 



50 

the world and the world knew not. He who was the 
true light that lighteneth every man that cometh 
into the world. Here the one mentioned as not 
known is plainly shown to be the " light that light- 
eneth every man that cometh into the world." And 
this light, in which there is no darkness, which is 
God and is the true light, is the light which was in 
Jesus, or which Jesus was by nature, and which the 
world knew not. 



The Word was made Flesh. 

" The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, 
and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only 
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." — 
John IcL^ 14:th v. The Word that was made flesh 
is the same Word that was in the beginning with 
God and was God. Therefore, as the Word was 
God, and there was but one that was God, the 
Word must have been a part of that same one God, 
for God is one, whether the Father in the Son or the 
Son in the Father, it is the same one God. As 
regards the Father, it is God, Jehovah; as regards 
the Son, it is God as imparted to Him by the Father. 
For it was the being that was born of the Virgin 
Mary that was His Son, and the humanity of Jesus, 
which He received from His mother, was as much 
the Son of God as the God-nature of Himself; and 
thus it is that the Word was made flesh or to exist 
in the flesh. For when they beheld Sis glory they 
beheld it as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, 
Hence we see that the- Word became flesh, or in the 
flesh, by His being begotten of the Father. There- 
fore, if we speak of the humanity of Christ it is 
Himself that we speak of; if we speak of His 
Divinity it is He the same ; and if we speak of Him, 



52 

it is both His humanity and Divinity that we speak 
of. For as in Him is combined both humanity and 
Divinity, the one cannot be Him without the other, 
for the union of these two natures is just what con- 
stituted His existence. 



I Came Forth from the Father. 

" I came forth from the Father and am come into 
the world : again, I leave the world, aiid go to the 
Father." — John^ JlVIcL, 28th v. According to the 
views of many with regard to this coming forth 
from the Father, it is construed to imply that Jesus 
existed before He was born of the Virgin Mary, and 
that His existence consisted in the Eternal Sonship, 
or that in some mysterious manner He was God. 
That is, first He was God, then He was the Eternal 
Son of God ; that is. He w^as always the Son of God, 
and this Son was always God, and there never was 
any God but the Father, and the Father was the 
living and true God, and the Son was equal to Him. 
Then this Son, who was ahvays God, notwithstand- 
ing that there was no God but the Father, became 
a man ; that is, Jehovah, who alone is God, became 
the Father of Him whose name w^as to be called 
Jesus. Then this Son was the other Eternal Son, 
and as those who saw Him saw the Father, He was 
the Father, the Son, and the Eternal Son ; and so 
His being manifest in the flesh embraced all that 
was God. No wonder that they called it mystery — 
mystery is no name for it. No wonder that the 
infidel smiles, and the heathen prefers his own God; 
no wonder that men are taught to lay aside reason 



54 

and close their Bibles, that they may embrace 
such ridiculous absurdity as this. But wonderful, 
indeed, is it that there are so many who, with open 
Bibles and free pulpits, embrace and teach this Her- 
culean heresy in its most glaring form. But, away 
with it, in the Word of God there is no room for 
any such ideas, but each and every truth is as a 
bright and shining light, and will emit no such 
gloom or darkness. So, when Jesus said that He 
came forth from the Father and came into the 
world. He meant that He Himself came forth from 
the Father, and came into the world. And who 
was this person that spake thus, but the man Christ 
Jesus, who was begotten of the Father. And hence 
the saying, I came forth from the Father, just as the 
Scriptures says : " And when He brought the first 
begotten into the world. He saith, and let all the 
angels of God worship Him." Him who came forth 
from the Father (that is, when He was begotten,) 
and came into the world. For it was the man 
Jesus, the Son of God, the Son of Mary, He who 
came into existence when He was born of the Virgin 
Mary, that came forth from the Father and came 
into the world. Then says He, '' Again, I leave the 
world and go to the Father.'' Here we see that the 
person who came forth from the Father, and came 
into the world, is the person who leaves the world 
and goes to the Father. It was not a shadowing 
something that existed in mj'Stery, but the Son of 
God, the Son of Mary, that person who was there 
and thus addressed His disciples. And there would 



65 

be just as much consistency in saying that the Capi- 
tol at Washington was in existence before the 
Roman Republic, because the iron of which its 
dome is constructed was in existence at or before 
that time, as there would be in saying that Christ 
was in existence before the foundation of the world, 
because the God-nature that constituted the Divinity 
of the being, Jesus Christ, was in existence at and 
before that time. 



For Thou Lovedst Me Before the Foundation of the 

Woy\±— John XVII: 24. 

God did not love Jesus simply because He was 
the Son of Mary, but, more particularly, because 
He was His own Son. And inasmuch as God so 
loved the world, or man, as to provide for his salva- 
tion through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, 
if He have such love towards man before He was 
created, it is evident that He loved Jesus before He 
was born or begotten, or, as Jesus said, '' before the 
foundation of the world." For, as He was '' foreor- 
dained before the foundation of the world," so He 
was loved before the foundation of the world. For 
the love that God manifested towards us in the gift 
of His only begotten Son, being embraced in the 
being '^ foreordained before the foundation of the 
world," this love which He has manifested towards 
us He had for us before the foundation of the world, 
or at the time of the foreordaining. And this great 
love that He had towards us even before our crea- 
tion, is presented to our view through the fact that 
He gave His only begotten Son, whom He loved so 
dearly at that time, to die for us. Hence, the love 
that He had toward the world, or man, must have 
preceded the foreordaining, as in Him who was fore- 
ordained was manifested this love. Hence, this love 
existed, and this foreordination was a provision made 



57 

in consequence of this love. Therefore, as God so 
loved man before he was created, it is clearly evinced 
that He loved His only Son before He was born or 
begotten, or, as Jesus said, " before the foundation 
of the world." 



Sent into the World. 

The idea that Jesus was sent from the Divine 
glory, or that it embraced a separate pre-existence, 
is quite as absurd as the idea generally entertained 
concerning His coming forth from the Father. For 
the one sent was Jesus Christ, and there 'was no 
Jesus Christ but the Son of God; and God never 
had a son except the one that was begotten by Him- 
self and born of the Virgin Mary, and this was the 
one that was sent. But it has been such an all- 
absorbing task with the advocates of Christianity to 
maintain the fact that Christ was Divine, that they 
seem to have lost sight of the fact that it is just as 
important to know that He is man as it is to know 
that He is God. For if Jesus had not been man 
He could not have wrought our salvation ; for the 
atonement was made by His death. For " God 
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten 
Son to die for us." Thus we see that the one who 
died for us was the one who was begotten of the 
Father, and born of the Virgin Mary, the one whom 
the Father sanctified and sent into the world ; this 
one was the person Jesus who was the Virgin's son, 
and this person was the one who was sent. But He 
was not sent when He was born, for He was then 
the helpless infant that needed the strong arms of 
Joseph to bear Him beyond the reach of the mur- 



59 

derous Herod, who sought the young child's life. It 
is true that He was born, but He was not sent on 
the mission for which He came into the world, and 
which constituted His being sent. For He was first 
to be manifested as man, for it was not that the 
flesh was to be manifested in God, but that God was 
to be manifested in the flesh. And that He was 
first to be manifested as a man is evident from the 
fact that He was twelve years old before there was 
any particular manifestation as regards His Divine 
nature ; and after that He was subject to His mother 
and Joseph, and learned the carpenter's trade ; was 
associated with men, lived, moved and mingled with 
them and lived as they lived, and was regarded by 
them as a son, as a brother, as a fellow-mechanic ; 
and, as we understand, was '' in favor with God and 
man." And thus manifested as a man, who had 
lived to be about thirty years old, He was sent forth 
upon the mission for which He came into the world. 
And the fact that that was the time when He was 
sent, is evident from the fact that John preceded 
His coming, and said, " There cometh one after me 
whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and 
unloose." So if He had been sent before that, then 
He would not have come after John, for John said, 
" that He might be manifest therefore have I come 
preaching." And again, John himself was in desert 
places until his showing unto Israel, and that was 
while Jesus was being manifested as a man, prior 
to His being sent forth upon the great mission for 
which He came into the world. And as Jesus was 



60 

sent into the world, so John was as truly sent before 
Him ; and the Apostles were sent into the world as 
really as Jesus was sent. For, saith He, " as Thou 
hast sent Me into the world, so also have I sent them 
into the world." And as God sanctified His Son, 
Jesus, and sent Him into the world, so were the 
Apostles sanctified through the truth that Jesus 
taught them, and were sent into the world ; and 
inasmuch as these were sent into the world as He 
was sent, so it was that He was sent as thej^ were 
sent. So first " there was a man sent from God, 
whose name was John," and then the Son of God 
was sent, and then as He was sent so He sent His 
twelve Apostles. And hence we see how plainly 
the truth is presented to us in Gal. IV: 4, " But when 
the fullness of the time loas come, God sent His Son, made 
of a woman, made under the law.'' Here we see that 
as Adam was made at the creation, so Christ was 
made after that creation, for " when the fullness of 
the time was come," that is, when the full or proper 
time came, then God sent forth His Son, not that 
was made when eternity began, but He who was 
made thousands of years after the creation began. 
Not a Son that was always, or always was a Son, 
but His Son that was made of a woman. For He 
was made of a woman, and made under the law. 
And this woman was made hundreds of years after 
the law was made, and the law was made hundreds 
of years after the world was made. Hence we see 
that the Son of God was made, that the time when 



61 

He was made was during the existence of the law of 
Moses, and we also see it positively affirmed that He 
was " made of a woman," and that this Son that 
was " made of a woman, made under the law,^' was 
the one who was sent. 



The One that was Rich, yet Became Poor. 

He whOj though He was rich, yet for our sakes 
became poor, that we, through His poverty, might 
be rich ; He who made Himself of no reputation ; 
He who took upon Himself the form of a servant ; 
He who was obedient unto death, even the death of 
the cross. 

When Jesus stood before Pilate, and Pilate ques- 
tioned Him concerning His being a king, Jesus 
answered, '' Thou sayest that I am a king.'^ And 
when the shepherds came " seeking for Jesus," they 
said, " Where is He that is born king of the Jews?'^ 
Hence, we see that when Jesus was born, he was 
born a king. He was the legitimate heir to the 
throne of David, and at His birth was the rightful 
sovereign of the kingdom of Israel, and all the glory 
and resources of that kingdom were His the day 
that He was born. Moreover, He was not only 
Humanity, but Divinity ; and though it is possible 
to impoverish Humanity, it is impossible to impov- 
erish Divinity. Again, He was the child that was 
born unto us, the Son that was given uiito us, whose 
name is Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the 
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace ; He was the 
one who received the homage of the Shepherds, the 
one who was " presented with gold, frankincense and 



63 

myrrh." Therefore, it could not have been other- 
wise than that Jesus was rich when He was born. 
And it must be remembered that the poverty of His 
mother and Joseph, and His being poor, are two 
things. But it was necessary for us that He should 
become poor, or as it were poor, just as His '' taking 
upon Himself the form of a servant " was not a ser- 
vant, but " the form of a servant." For if, through 
His poverty, w^e w^ere to be made rich, it is evident 
that if He had remained rich, we should have 
remained poor. ^'Yet for our sakes He became 
poor," or as it were poor ; and this was an act of 
His own, just as His making Himself of no reputa- 
tion, and taking upon Himself the form of a servant, 
was His own act. Hence, we see that as Jesus made 
Himself of no reputation, but placed Himself on a 
level wdth those who were poor, and took upon 
Himself the form of a servant, it must have been 
the Son of Mary that acted thus. And the time 
when this seems to have commenced was when He 
went down from the feast and was subject to His 
mother and Joseph, after having been found in the 
temple disputing with the doctors of the law. For 
after that He was subject to His parent; and though 
He might have learned the carpenter's trade with 
Joseph, it was none the less the form of a servant. 
Moreover, He was obedient unto death; but this 
part of the obedience was obedience to His Father, 
and not to His mother or man. As " Lo I come, in 
the volume of the book it is written of Me, to do 
Thy will, oh God." And again, " Not My will, but 



64 

Thine be done.'' Again, in regard to making Him- 
self of no reputation, this was while He was being 
manifested as a man ; for it would require a very 
elastic faith to believe that Jesus made Himself 
of no reputation while He was being manifested as 
Grod. Moreover, the one who died on the cross was 
the one that was rich and became poor ; that made 
Himself of no reputation ; that took upon Himself 
the form of a servant; and this was the one that 
was begotten of the Father, and came into existence 
when He was born of the Virgin Mary. 



The Falsity of Being- Equal to God. 

The idea that Christ was equal to the Father, is 
another of those gross perversions called mysteries, 
that are so foreign to the realities of the Scriptures. 
For being equal to God, and being equal with Him, 
are phrases which widely difier in signification. For 
as Jesus was the Son of God, and His creation or 
existence was brought about by His Father, it is 
evident that it would be impossible, according to the 
nature of the case, for Him to be equal to God the 
Father. And though the fact that He is equal with 
God, is in perfect harmony with the nature of 
things, the idea that He is equal to Him is alto- 
gether erroneous, as it is impossible for any person 
or power to be equal to that person or power that 
created and sustains it. And this being equal to 
God is a fabrication of man, destitute of Scriptural 
support, and is directly contrary to the teachings of 
Christ, for His claims were to equality with God the 
Father, but not to being equal to Him ; and not- 
withstanding that He taught and proved to His 
disciples that he was Divine, and that He and His 
Father were one. He also taught them that all 
that He was, and all that He was to be, was, and 
was to be by the power, and according to the plea- 
sure of His Father, who was greater than He. 
3* 



The Reality of that which is Taught in Col., I ch., 
15th to 18th V. 

"Who is the image of the Invisible God, the first- 
born of every creature ?" Here, in speaking of 
Christ, Paul tells us, positively, that He is not the 
Eternal God, for if He were the Eternal, He would 
not be the image of the Invisible God, who is the 
Eternal, but would be that Eternal God, and this 
passage would be as flatly nonsense as it w^ould be 
to say that Paul was the image of himself. And 
then he adds that " He was the first-born of every 
creature,^' and shows us that this being born was 
being born from the dead ; that He who was the 
beginning was the first-born from the dead ; so that 
this beginning that He was, was begun when He 
arose from the dead. For surely He never was dead 
before ; so it was then that this beginning began ; 
for there have been many beginnings, of which this 
is one (17th verse) : " And He is before all things, and 
by Him all things consist." That is. He is before 
all that followed this beginning or His resurrection. 
'' And by Him all things consist." That is, after 
He received the gift of the Holy Ghost, and all 
power was conferred upon Him, and He became the 
mighty God. For this all things is limited to those 
things which existed, or were created after His resur- 



67 

rection, or that beginning which commenced at His 
resurrection. " Whether they be things in heaven 
or in earth, visible or invisible ; whether thrones, 
dominions, principalities or powers, they were 
created by Him and for Him." That is, to serve 
His purpose. " And He is the head of the body, 
the church, who is the beginning, the first-born 
from the dead." So that when He was born from 
the dead, that was His beginning, as this great one, 
that He might have the pre-eminence, and being 
the first raised from the dead He was the first, and 
commenced this dispensation, the consummation of 
which is to be the resurrection, by Him, of all who 
are of that number of which He is the first. And 
as Christ was God, the God that He was, was God 
in reality. But here it must be remembered, that 
in the nature of God there is no separation, and 
that the God-nature of Jesus was the Father in Him. 
And hence the fact, that as the Father was the God- 
nature of Jesus, that Father was the one who made 
the world, for just as the Father that was in Him 
did the works, just so the Father that was in Him 
made the worlds. And just as they say that the 
works spoken of were done by Jesus, just so they 
say that the worlds were made by Him. But Jesus 
said that these works were done by the Father, 
which was in Him, and if He had spoken concern- 
ing the worlds it is evident that He would have 
taught the same concerning them. But Paul under- 
stood one by the teaching of the other, and said, 
" To us there is but one God, even the Father." 



68 

Hence the reason why the Apostles ascribe the 
creating power to Jesus was not the result of any 
ignorance on their part, but because they under- 
stood the nature of God, and knew that as Christ 
was, in reality, the begotten of the Father, it could 
not be otherwise than that He was God. And 
hence the reason why they said, by Him were all 
things created, was because they believed what 
Jesus taught them ; that is, that the God that He 
was, was the Father in Him. And hence we see, 
that instead of the Apostles teaching that Jesus 
existed before He was born of the Virgin Mary, 
they show us plainly that it was His Father, Jeho- 
vah, that existed, and that by Him were all things 
created ; and the teachings of Jesus not only show 
us that this is the case, but show us plainly that 
the works that He did were the works of that same 
Divine-nature which was imparted to Him when He 
was begotten, and that as the Father, which was in 
Him, did the works that He performed here on 
earth, that that same Father was the creator of all 
things, and that He also created Him when He was 
begotten of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin 
Mary. 



Christ aiorified with His Father's Own Self. 

" And now, Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine 
own self, with the glory which I had with Thee 
before the world was/' — John XVII ch,^ 5th v. 

In this connection, as in many others, that peculiar 
trouble occurs which other books are not subject to, 
that is, the mixing up, by the reader, of times, char- 
acters, subjects and so on. For men will read other 
books and believe that their authors mean what they 
say, instead of what others may wish it to be, or 
what they may happen to think, and they will at 
least read a chapter before they pass sentence upon 
it. But there are many who will read a sentence in 
one place in the Scriptures, and then if they find 
another sentence somewhere else that sounds differ- 
ently, they condemn the whole, without knowing 
the connections of either. And the case is no better, 
or very little, with many who attempt to expound 
the Scriptures, for their sectarian credulity is about 
as easily satisfied as the skepticism of the infidel, so 
that one is about as consistent as the other. But 
when these times, characters, subjects and so on, 
are seen in their proper places, and understood with 
their legitimate connections, that mystic shade that 
has been cast upon them vanishes away, and these 
truths are not only to be seen, but shine forth with 



70 

that brilliancy and force which show that they are 
not only truths but that they are Divine. So in 
this text it must be remembered that Christ's glori- 
fying His father and His being glorified with His 
Father are two things. For, in the first place, 
Jesus told His Father that He had glorified Him 
on the earth, and that He had finished the work 
that He had given Him to do. Thus showing 
that the glorifying of His Father was wrought by 
His obedience to His Father, in performing that 
which the Father had enjoined upon Him. IJp to 
this time Jesus had been devoted to the work of 
glorifjdng His Father, and after, as He supposed, 
He had accomplished that work in its fullest sense, 
then He desired to be glorified with His Father's 
own self. 'Not that he was not by nature God, as 
the Father was, or that His Divine nature was not 
of the Father, but because His Father was greater 
than He. And all these expressions concerning His 
being glorified are petitions or prayers lo the Father. 
And though God had glorified His name and would 
glorify it again, the desire of Jesus that He might 
be glorified with His Father's own self was not 
granted until after His death and resurrection. For 
the hour having come when God was to glorify 
Jesus that Jesus might glorify Him, and the time 
when the Father was to glorify Jesus with His own 
self, are two distinct periods. And notwithstanding 
the fact that Jesus was God by nature, it is evident 
that He longed for the time of His glorification to 
arrive, without knowing the exact time when it was 



71 

to take place. For He who was to bring it to pass 
was greater than He; and as it was God w^ho 
imparted the Divine nature to Jesus, He controlled 
that nature and power, and developed it according 
to His pleasure. And it was not until after the all- 
power was conferred upon Jesus, which power 
embraced the manifesting of the Spirit, that Christ 
was glorified with His Father's own self; and it was 
then that He became the mighty God; and thus 
forever relieved from the humiliation of His natural 
life, and crowned as the mighty God, He was glori- 
lied with His Father's own self, with the glory that 
His Divine nature had with the Father before the 
world was. 



The Family of Jesus, or How He was Related to 
Mankind, as Embraced in His Family Connec- 
tions. 

And inasnuich as the truth concerning these con- 
nections has been so grossly perverted by those who 
desire to clothe humanity with the attributes of the 
Almighty, that they may worship the creature 
instead of the Creator, who have added to the 
damnable heresies which constitute their organiza- 
tion, the dogma of the immaculate conception of 
the Virgin Mary; and to this a still more audacious 
falsity, by teaching that the mother of Jesus Christ 
never had a child except Him, and that she was not 
only a virgin before Christ was conceived, but that 
she is now, and never was anything else. In view 
of this audacious scandal against truth and sense, 
and that the nature of Christ, as embraced in His^ 
humanity, may be more easily seen, it is proper to 
understand the Scriptural facts in regard to these 
things ; and so, in the very first fact that presents 
itself, we see the utter falsity of the assertion that 
the Virgin Mary was or is a virgin in any other 
sense than that in which all other women are or are 
not virgins. For when Joseph had suspected Mary 
of infidelity, the " Lord said unto him, fear not to 
take Mary to thy wife, for that which is conceived 



73 

in her is of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph did as 
the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took 
unto him his wife, and knew her not until she had 
brought forth her first-born son." Here is pre- 
sented the relationship of Joseph to Mary as exist- 
ing prior to the birth of Christ, and afterwards, as 
plainly as language can teach it, and shows that 
Jesus was not the only son of Mary, but that He 
was her first-born son, which vshe had before Joseph 
knew her ; and that afterwards he knew his wife, 
and she had other sons, which were not her first- 
born, but her second, third, and so on. But this 
testimony, though positive and sufficient in itself to 
condemn the idea of Mary's being a virgin after 
Christ was born, and of Christ being the only son 
of Mary, it is small compared with that which fol- 
lows. For Matthew (XHI : 54 to 57) tells us that 
" when He was come unto His own country. He 
taught them in their synagogues, insomuch that 
they were astonished, and said, whence hath this 
man this wisdom, and these mighty works ? Is not 
this the carpenter's son ? is not His mother called 
Mary, and His brethren, James, Joses, and Simon, 
and Judas ? And His sisters, are they not with us ? 
Whence then hath this man all these things? And 
they were offended in^ Him." Here we have 
recorded, in the pLdnest language possible, the fact 
that Mary had five sons and at least two daughters. 
And the very reason why they rejected Him was 
because they knew His mother, and that James and 
Joses and Simon and Judas were His brothers, and 
4 



74 

that they knew His sisters. And the manner in 
which they expressed themselves was equivalent to 
saying. We know His mother, and brothers and sis- 
ters, and here He is making Himself the Son of 
God ; He is not the Son of God ; He is nothing but 
a man, for we know His mother, His brothers and 
sisters. Thus, the very fact that they knew His 
mother, and that she had these children, and that 
He was one of them, they sat up as a reason for 
rejecting Him as the Son of God. Yet, in opposi- 
tion to all this, the disgusting frivolity is advanced 
that the sons of Mary were called brethren. But 
even this is silenced by Mark, who records the cir- 
cumstance in such a manner as to fit the phraseology 
exactly to the fact, as recorded in chapter VI, 2d 
and 3d verses : " And when the Sabbath day was 
come. He began to teach in the synagogue : and 
many hearing Him were astonished, saying, from 
whence hath this man these things, and what wis- 
dom is this which is given unto Him, that even such 
mighty works are wrought by His hands. Is not 
this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of 
James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon, and are not 
His sisters with us? And they were ofiended at 
Him." And the interrogative form in which they 
expressed the fact that they knew His mother and 
brothers and sisters, being the most positive and 
strongest manner in which it could be expressed, 
shows that they not only knew it, but that the fact 
that He was the son of Mary and brother of her 
children, proved satisfactorily to them that He was 



75 

not the Son of God. Hence, as this was the only 
reason, or the best that they could give for rejecting 
Him, and as they gave it there, in public and in His 
presence, without being contradicted, it leaves the 
subject without a shadow of doubt. And it is not 
improbable that, as Jesus was in His own country, 
and among His own kin, some of those who denied 
His claims to Divinity had eaten at the same table 
with Him and His brothers and sisters, or wrought 
with Him and His brothers in the erection of the 
same building. Yet, notwithstanding all this, it is 
asserted that Jesus had no brother except those who 
were His brethren in the Gospel ; and though this 
idea is so belittling in the eyes of common sense, 
and displays such willful perversion in the teacher, 
and such bigoted credulity in the believer, it is 
advanced as an all-sufficient argument against all 
the preceding truths, and, though too insignificant 
in itself to be worthy of consideration, yet, as it 
constitutes the best they can produce, the nature of 
the case requires that it should be noticed. And as 
it is true that Christ had brethren in the Gospel, 
this same fact makes it positive that He had brethren 
who were not brethren in the Gospel, but were His 
own mother's sons. "And these brothers said unto 
Him, depart hence, and go into Judea, that Thy 
disciples also may see the works that Thou doest. 
For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, 
and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If 
Thou do these things, show Thyself to the world. 
For neither did His brethren believe in Him,'' And 



76 

these brethren who did not believe in Him were His 
mother's children, His brothers James, Joses, Simon 
and Judas ; for it was impossible for Him to have 
had any other brethren who did not believe on 
Him. For all others who were His brethren, were 
His brethren in the Gospel, and before they could 
have been His brethren, they must of necessity have 
believed on Him ; so that, to be His brethren in the 
Gospel, without believing on Him, was outside of 
possibility ; therefore, it would have been impossible 
for those who did not believe on Him to have been 
any other brethren than His natural brethren, the 
childi-en of Mary, who were James, Joses, Simon 
and Judas. Hence, it is plain that Mary was a pure 
virgin at the time that the angel delivered the mes- 
sage, and it is just as plainly taught, and as posi- 
tively affirmed, that afterwards she became the 
mother of at least seven children ; and thus we see 
that the relationship of Christ to mankind is not 
only in part, but in the fullest reality. And in this 
man should ever glory; for if God so loved the 
world as to manifest Himself in the flesh by uniting 
His own nature with that of humanity, how greatly 
ought it to affect us to praise and thanksgiving ; and 
hence, how basely heretical to make it appear that 
such an event never took place in reality, and that 
Christ was the offspring of one who did not possess 
the infirmities of humanity or the real nature of 
man; but that He was the offspring of a sort of 
goddess, who, if not Divine, was so much superior 
to the daughters of Adam as to be destitute of 



77 

everything that could bring one of her offspring in 
sympathy with imperfect, fallen man, and deprive 
him of that Great High Priest who could be touched 
with a feeling of his infirmities. And every attempt 
to destroy the reality of the birth and nature of 
Christ as a man, conflicts with the reality of His 
nature as God, (for, if He was not the son of man. 
He was not the Messiah, and, therefore, was not the 
Son of God,) for He was one in the same sense that 
He was the other, and, if He had not the infirmities 
of man. He had not the perfections of God. For, 
in the same reality that He was God, He was man ; 
for He was first begotten of the Holy Ghost, that is 
of God, and then He was born of the V^irgin Mary, 
that is of a daughter of Adam, and the realities of 
these two facts constituted the existence of Jesus 
Christ; and whatever these two realities embraced, 
that is what He was, and as certainly embraced the 
imperfections of the one as the perfections of the 
other. 



The Mother of Jesus Christ. 

God being the Father of Jesus, and Mary being 
His mother, and God being from everlasting, and 
Mary not being in existence for thousands of years 
after the creation, and God being her Creator, how 
foolish the idea of Mary being the mother of God, 
and how foreign to all the conceptions, to all that 
God has placed in man, that constitutes the reason- 
ing power, or the sense by which we discriminate 
between truth and error, is this preposterous idea of 
Mary, a daughter of Adam, being the mother of 
God; one who was nothing more than a fair speci- 
men of humanity, possessing no peculiarities what- 
ever, except that she was so highly favored of the 
Lord that all nations would call her blessed; one 
who had no other claims to greatness; one who 
claimed nothing more. Moreover, if she had been 
a being superior to man, Jesus would not have been 
the seed of the woman. He would not have been 
that prophet which was to be raised up unto them 
of their brethren. He would not have had our 
infirmities ; there would be no sympathy between 
God and man, no High Priest who had had our 
infirmities and could be touched with a feeling of 
them. Moreover, if Mary had been in existence 
before the foundation of the world, and had had 
power to create it, the idea of her being the mother 
of God would be foolishness ; yea, the idea is so 



79 

much like the essence of folly that it seems like 
bringing common sense beneath its level, when we 
attempt to argue it. Nevertheless, Jesus Christ 
had a mother, and it is evident, that as man was not 
His father, that Mary was the mother of more than 
man ; and though it were impossible for her to 
have been the mother of God, it is evident that she 
was the mother of all that was embraced in the 
union of God and man, as existing in Jesus Christ, 
for she was His mother, and He was God as well as 
man, and the God that He was, and the man that 
He was, was in indistinct union. But as every jot 
and tittle of truth teaches us that there is no separa- 
tion in God, the God that Jesus was, was that which 
was imparted to Him by the Father, when He begat 
Him. And so, instead of being the mother of God, 
she was the mother of the union of God and man. 
Therefore, Mary was the mother of Jesus Christ 
with respect to His whole existence, for the Divine 
nature never had such an existence before. Thus, 
though Jesus was Divine, Mary, in the fullest 
acceptation of the term, was His mother, for that 
existence which He constituted never existed before. 
But she was no more the mother of the Divine 
nature, which He received from His Father, than 
she was the mother of her own existence; for being 
the mother of the being, and the mother of the 
nature, are two particularly distinct things, for since 
the beginning of creation there never was a mother 
that was the mother of the nature of her offspring's 
father. 



The Union of God and Man. 

There was a great object in the work of God as 
manifested in Jesus Christ, which seems to have 
been lost sight of, or at least for ages past has not 
been fully understood, and seems to be entirely 
obscured at the present day. This particular object 
or design of God is to be inferred or understood 
from the facts in the case, as existing under the two 
covenants. So that under the first covenant man 
was isolated from God, and the nature of the one 
was not comprehended through any sympathetic 
organism of the other, God being God and God 
only, and man being man and man only. So that 
that sympathetic organism which was a perquisite 
to the possessor of that quality, that could be touched 
with a feeling of our infirmity, under the old cove- 
nant, God did not possess. But, seeing its necessity 
from the time of fall of Adam, (for though a pro- 
vision before, it was then that it became a necessity,) 
determined that that organism should be united with 
Himself. For though He could be touched with a 
feeling for our infirmities. He could not be touched 
with a feeling of them. Thus we see that under 
the first dispensation, God, in His dealings with 
man, acted through that organism in man, but with- 
out the union of that organism with Himself; thus 



81 

it is that under the old dispensation, God, in His deal- 
ings with man, acted more in accordance with His 
justice, and less in accordance with His mercy. Hence 
we see the Amlikites utterly destroyed because they 
endeavored to destroy God's people; this, it seems, 
was their just deserts; and also the nations of Canaan, 
as nations, were destroyed because the cup of their 
iniquity had become full. Yet the mercy of God 
had been extended tow^ards those nations until 
their abominations were to the full, then the just 
wrath of God fell upon them, unmixed with 
mercy, and without that mitigating efiect being 
manifest that proceeds from a sympathetic union. 
And when the perfidious designs of the vile Haman 
were frustrated, and the Jews were rescued from 
that terrible slaughter that aw^aited them, it was not 
only that they escaped, but that terrible slaughter 
which their enemies intended for them fell, in accord- 
ance with strict justice, unmixed w^ith mercy, upon 
their own heads. And w^hen Saul was rejected he 
was rejected; when Uzza touched the ark he was 
smitten, and under the law, by the mouth of two 
witnesses, the man died without mercy. And though 
the mercy of God has been manifest in His dealings 
with mankind since the beginning of creation, yet 
the absence of that organism which alone could 
generate and consummate that sympathy which God 
desired and intended that Himself should possess, 
may be seen to exist under the old covenant, and its 
presence is clearly and unmistakably seen to exist 
under the new. So that under the old dispensation 



82 

man was dealt with more in accordance with rigid 
justice, so that they learned the law in accordance 
with the saying, '' An eye for an eye, and a tooth 
for a tooth." But as soon as the wonderful work 
of bringing about the union of Grod and man was 
consummated in the Son of Grod, what a change, yea, 
what a reverse. Judaism stunned; the sword of ven- 
geance sheathed; the Sanhedrum, with its decrees 
of death, dissolved; the galling yoke broken, and 
the grievous burden taken away ; and man lifted his 
head above the fading elements of the old covenant, 
and saw the exhibitions of rigid justice at once sup- 
planted by the most tender manifestations of sympa- 
thetic mercy. And this glorious event has been chant- 
ed and chimed forth by men and angels, and confirmed 
by the audible voice of Jehovah Himself, so that 
even justice smiled when mercy's voice was heard. 

But some say, why this change ; why its neces- 
sity ? Could not God have always done as He is 
now doing ? Could not these tender dealings with 
mankind have been practiced always? Does not 
God know all things ? This God Himself explains ; 
but it is evident that those who ask the question do 
not know all things. For if they knew as much as 
Job knew, or as much as the few sentences which 
he gave utterance to upon this subject can teach 
them, they would not ask the question, but would 
see its great necessity, and the wonderful manifesta- 
tion of God's wisdom and mercy in bringing it 
about. For, saith Job, when in vain he looked 
around him for that help which his situation called 



83 

for, and realized the unapproachable greatness and 
dignity of the Almighty, " He is not a man as I am, 
that I should answer Ilim, and we should come 
together in judgment, neither is there any daysman 
betwixt us that might lay his hand upon us both." 
And who, with this before him, could fail to see. the 
necessity of such a mediator as the Son of God, the 
son of man, and the wonderful manifestation of the 
wisdom and mercy of God in creating such a medi- 
ator as Jesus Christ, such a daysman as this, who 
can lay His hand upon us both. And again, in the 
•language of the Apostle, we see the wonderful mani- 
festation of God's wisdom and mercy in providing 
such a mediator, for, saith he, " In all things it 
behooved Christ to be made like unto His brethren," 
that is, that in every respect He should be made like 
them, and that, as a man, in no respect He should 
be made differently from them, ''that He might be a 
merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertain- 
ing to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of 
the people, for in that He Himself hath suffered, 
being tempted. He is able to succor them that are 
tempted." And the fact that this medium of sym- 
pathy did not exist under the old covenant, being 
clearly shown by the language of Job, is rendered 
unmistakable by the fact that it was afterwards 
created. So that the 'wonderful work of God, in 
bringing into existence His only begotten Son, with 
all its other features, embraces this one particular and 
all-important fact, that God in so doing designed to 
and did unite with Himself that organism through 



84 

which Himself could be in sympathy with man. 
Hence we see that it was as essential for Jesus 
Christ to be man as it was for Him to be God, and 
the fact that He was to be man and all that man 
was, and that as a man He was to be nothing more, 
is clearly to be seen from the nature of the case. 
For if as a man He had been superior to man, that 
organism would not have answered God's purpose ; 
and if He had not been all that man was, then there 
would have been a deficiency, and the purpose of 
God could not have been accomplished. But as a 
man He was man complete ; as God He was God in* 
reality. And God and man thus united in the per- 
son Jesus Christ, His existence was no more the 
result of nature's creative laws, in His being the 
offspring of Mary, than was His existence the result 
of His being begotten of the Father. For the God- 
nature that He was, constituted His existence in the 
same reality as, and in indistinct union with, His 
humanity, so that if He was man He was God, and 
if He was God He was man. So that without His 
God-nature, the being Christ could not be, and the 
being Jesus Christ never was and never can be in 
existence without His humanity, for if the God- 
nature of Jesus was taken away, it would be that 
same God whose nature it always was, and as there 
is no separation in Divinity, it would be the same 
one God; and if the humanity or man was taken 
away from Him, the humanity would return to its 
dust, for man, according to the declaration of the 
Almighty who created him, is dust. So that if the 



85 

Divinity and humanity were separated, the being 
Jesus Christ would not be in existence; but God 
and man united in the being Jesus Christ, we have 
a Great High Priest that can be touched with a 
feeling of our infirmities, and through the sympathy 
brought about by this union God understood even 
the nature and terrors of death. For Christ was 
His Son in the nature of Himself and Mary, just as 
He was the Son of Mary in the nature of herself 
and God ; and as Mary felt the pangs produced by 
sympathy for her Son when she beheld Him on the 
cross, so God felt for His Son, for He was His Son 
in the same reality that He w^as the son of Mary. 
Hence the consummation of the design of the 
Almighty, in bringing abou^t a sympathy between 
Himself and mankind, is clearly seen in the union 
of God and man in the being Jesus Christ, whose 
humanity constitutes that organic structure through 
which God Himself can be and is in sympathy with 
man. 



Immortality. 

If there could be any immortality in man, that 
immortality would, of necessity, be of a Divine 
nature, and, of course, would be derived from God 
as a power of existence, and being of a Divine 
nature, it could be no separation from that nature. 
And as free agency in the present state of affairs is 
manifestly certain, the fact that there is no immor- 
tality in man is just as certain, for the Christian, 
even who has the immortal spirit within him, is 
nevertheless certainly mortal, both in regard to the 
first and second deaths, for, still having the liberty 
to obey or disobey, if he draw back he draws back 
into perdition, and is a subject for the first and the 
second deaths. Hence it is evident that there is no 
immortality in man. And the Scriptures, in regard 
to this matter, are very plain and pointed. As '^ For 
unto them that seek for glory, honor and immor- 
tality " is to be granted " eternal life, but tribula- 
tion and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth 
evil.^' Here we have God's promise, to the effect 
that if we seek for glory, honor and immortality, 
we shall have eternal life, which, of course, embraces 
glory, honor and immortality^ But if we do not 
seek for these things, then tribulation and anguish 
are to be the reward, and not eternal life. Hence 



87 

it is not only clear, but indisputably certain, that there 
is no immortality in man ; and it is also clear that 
the immortality that is to be sought for is embraced 
in the eternal life, and that the eternal life is not 
anything that man has, but that it is to be the 
result of seeking for glory, honor and immortality, 
and this is all embraced in the obtaining of the 
hope of glory, which is Christ in us ; for '' if any man 
have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His." 
Yea, unless He hath the spirit of Christ, the eternal 
spirit, which is the eternal life, there is not even a 
foretaste of immortality in him, for if there were 
immortality in man, it would be the essence of 
absurdity to exhort him to seek it. Hence, to main- 
tain that there is immortality in man, is to endorse 
the heathen idea concerning his nature, and reject 
the plain and positive teachings of the Scripture to 
the contrary. Again, the victory over death, not 
only spiritual, but also literal, is to be obtained 
through Jesus, as saith the Apostle, '' Thanks be to 
God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ." And this victory, which is brought 
about through Him, is to be completed when this 
corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this 
mortal shall have put on immortality, for it is then 
that death is to be swallowed up in victory (and 
how absurd the idea that death is to bring about 
this victory), and so this victory is to be completed 
when those who have the immortal spirit, the spirit 
of Jesus Christ, within them, which is to quicken or 
change them from corruptible to incorruptible, and 



88 

from mortal to immortal, are to be the recipients of 
this change, and are not only to have the witness of 
the spirit within them, but are to be clothed with 
immortality, or to be that which they were not 
before, immortal beings. Hence, how conspicuous 
the fact that there is no immortality in man. And 
as regards the nature or existence of man in this 
and the future states, that existence is to be realized 
and embraced by the one and the same being, and 
is to embrace the one and the same being in the 
future state that it does in this, and that being is 
man's own self And man is that being whom God 
made of the dust of the ground, and into whose 
nostrils He breathed the breath of life, and who then 
became a living soul. Not that he became a differ- 
ent being from what he was before, but the man 
being of the earth earthy, he was an inanimate 
being whom God had made with His hands, and 
thus made, he was all that is embraced in the word 
man. And then God breathed into his nostrils the 
breath of life, and thus man became a living soul. 
Hence we see that man is the being which God thus 
created, and this being is the one referred to when 
man is mentioned, just as Job meant when referring 
to this being, or speaking of man, thus, '' Thou wilt 
have a desire to the work of thy hands.'' So we see 
that first the man was made, and that then he 
received the breath of life ; therefore it is clear, that 
as man was the recipient of the breath of life, that 
he was man complete before he received it ; and it is 
just as positive that he was man the same, or the 



89 

same man after he was deprived of it, that is 
because he was man at first without it, and then 
became a living soul with it ; and then being 
deprived of it, he was the same man that he was 
before he received it. And it is evident, that with- 
out this breath of life which God breathed into man, 
by which he became a living soul, he could not 
exist. And it is evident that the eternal life is the 
only immortality, and that Christ is the way and 
the life ; that His humanity is the way and His 
Divinity is the life ; that His humanity, as embraced 
in the natural life is the way, and that His Divinity 
is the eternal life. And this life eternal, or eternal 
life, is made more comprehensible by the language 
of Paul, who, when speaking of the present and 
future natures of man, he says : " It is sown a 
natural body ; it is raised a spiritual body.'^ That 
is, the natural body, when it is raised, will be raised 
a spiritual body. For the natural life ceases when 
the blood ceases to flow through the body, for the 
blood is the life that is of the body, which is the 
natural body, and when this life has ceased from it, 
then it is sown a natural body; but when this 
natural body is raised, it is raised a spiritual body ; 
not that it is raised what is termed spiritually, or 
that it is a spirit, but this body which is sown or 
buried a natural body, which body, prior to its being 
sown, was sustained by the blood, which was its 
life, is to be raised destitute of ^that blood or natural 
life which it once had, and which ceased, and is to 
be raised by the spirit which dwelt in it, which 
4* 



90 

spirit, instead of its blood, is to be its life, and thus 
quickened or made alive, or made to live again 
through, the quickening power of the Spirit of God, 
it will be a spiritual body, the life of which is to be 
that spirit, the eternal spirit which is to be its 
eternal life. 

When Jesus was on earth He was a mortal being, 
but after His resurrection He was an immortal 
being ; and w^hen He permitted His followers to see 
Him after His resurrection, the evidence that He 
gave of Himself was that He was not a spirit, but 
flesh and bones. And whatever Jesus was as 
regards the natural body and the natural life, the 
death or change of the body and life, and its exist- 
ence here and hereafter, the same is true concerning 
His saints. For as Jesus was man and natural, so 
are His disciples, and as Jesus died and thus yielded 
^ up the natural life. His blood, the natural life being 
shed upon the cross, so His followers are subject to 
the same natural death or termination of the natural 
life. And as when Jesus had given up the Ghost, 
and His natural existence had ceased, and He, the 
same person, was laid in the tomb, so His saints, 
after they have ended their natural lives, are laid in 
their graves; and as Jesus, the same person who 
died on the cross and was laid in the tomb, whose 
natural life had ceased, was raised from the dead, 
that is, was quickened, made alive or made to live, 
so His saints, who are laid in the tomb, are to be 
quickened, made alive or made to live ; that is, they 
themselves, not the shadows of them, for their 



91 

natunil bodies are to be raised, just as tlie natural 
body of their Lord was raised, the difterence being 
that lie was not suffered to see corruption. And as 
when His natural body was raised, it was raised a 
spiritual body, and afterwards became a glorious 
body, so are the natural bodies of His saints to be 
raised spiritual bodies, and then to become glorious 
bodies. For Christ is to " change our vile body, 
that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious 
body, according to the working whereby He is able 
even to subdue all things unto Himself" 



Faith. 

" Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the 
evidence of things not seen." 

There is nothing more inconsistent with the fact 
that we are free agents than the idea that faith is a 
special gift. For if it were a special gift, this special 
gift would be the great prerequisite to all that is 
embraced in Christianity. And as in the absence of 
it this faith is to be obtained by him who obtains it 
without faith, and his nature being exactly at vari- 
ance with it, and this faith teaching him that with- 
out faith it is impossible to please llim who is the 
giver of this faith, it is evident that the eflbrt to 
obtain it would never be made. And as it embraces 
the idea that God requires that man, in his efforts 
to obtain His favor, should first make use of that 
which he has not, and that without that which he 
has not he cannot obtain that which he must have, 
it is evident that the idea that faith is a special gift 
is altogether erroneous. On the other hand, it 
embraces the idea that as man is destitute of this 
faith, and that it is a special gift and a positive 
necessity, or the great essential to salvation, that for 
God to be just He should first bestow this gift. 
And this would make salvation the gift of God to 
those whom He might choose, and this without 



93 

effort or will on their part, or the least discrimina- 
tion between right and wrong. In fact, it would 
make them mere machines, instead of responsible 
beings, and those who did not receive the gift would 
certainh^ be free from responsibility. In fact, it is 
the essence of folly to attempt to sustain the notion 
that faith is a special gift. The idea itself seems 
like the production of drowsy stupidity. For 
through this particular faith we are saved by grace, 
and this particular faith must precede the grace by 
which we are saved. " For by grace are ye saved 
through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the 
gift of God;" that is, the grace which is received 
through faith is the gift. For grace and truth came 
by Jesus Christ, but faith did not come by Him, for 
it is that inherent principle of our nature through 
which we are to receive the grace by which we are 
to be saved. For the grace is a free gift, and "- the 
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our 
Lord." But the grace, or eternal life, which is the 
gift, is received through faith, for faith is belief, and 
is just as applicable in any other sense as in a Chris- 
tian sense, even if that faith is nothing more than a 
contradiction of the Christian faith. For when a 
man believes that Christ was the son of Joseph or 
some other man, and that the prophecies concerning 
His first advent and the claims of Christ to fulfill 
them, and the teachings of the Apostles concerning 
Him, amount to nothing but superstition and cun- 
ningly devised fables, and that Christ was an 
imposter, this is his faith or belief, and this his free 



94 

agency gives him the privilege of doing. But when 
a man believes that Jesus Christ was the Son of 
God, that He fulfilled the prophecies concerning 
Him, and thus proved that He w^as the Messiah ; 
when he believes the teachings of Christ and places 
his hope of salvation on the atoning blood and 
merits of Jesus, then he has the faith of Christ, faith 
in Christ, and this is his faith. And this faith, in 
either case, is the result of the operations of the 
mind, subject more or less to the powers which con- 
stitute the will, and is, in the abstract, the same in 
substance, and is an inherency of his nature, which 
moves or operates in union with or in opposition to 
his will, as embraced in the fact that he is a free 
agent. And it is no special gift, but a power alike 
possessed by all men, and is the result of the action 
of the brain in discriminating between truth and 
error. This discrimination, however, may, by sub- 
mission to the baser principles of nature, become 
deranged, so that the power of discrimination may 
be governed more by the rulings of the passions 
than by the equally balanced or unbiased operations 
of the mind. 



Predestination. 

This belief, or rather the manner in v\^hich it is 
believed by those who are termed Predestinationists, 
in its most extensive sense, embraces some of the 
most extravagant ideas, and has called forth some 
of the most blasphemous assertions, with respect to 
the attributes of the Almighty, that it is possible to 
conceive of as being the productions of an evil 
heart, much less the teachings of intelligent and 
well-meaning men. And hence such a faith, or the 
pretensions of such a faith, no matter in whom or 
where manifest, should be regarded as the offspring 
of heathenism in its origin, and the most bigoted 
credulity in those who receive it. For those who 
teach or have taught what they call predestination, 
teach that before man was created God first contem- 
plated and then determined that He would create 
man, and that he should not be a free agent, but 
that, whether he would or no, he should be forced 
into sin ; and that he and all his ofl'spring should 
alike become criminals in His sight ; and that then 
He would bring about things in such a manner as 
to accomplish the sacrifice of His only begotten Son 
in behalf of some of these criminals. Not because 
they repented of their sins and forsook them, or 
because they believed on His Son (though they 



96 

might have done both), but because He had chosen 
them before they were created: that is, because He 
had created them for that purpose, and inasmuch as 
they were predestinated to be saved, they could not 
be lost. And that all others were created by the 
foreknowledge of God for the purpose of finally 
being damned, or, rather, that they were damned 
before they were created, and then created to be 
punished ; and that no matter how penitent they 
were, how much they implored the mercy of the 
Almighty, no matter how much they believed on 
His Son, He had consigned them to an eternal hell 
before they were created, and to hell they must go. 
And dark as this picture is, it is far from being its 
blackest color ; for this doctrine robs Satan of his 
attributes and attributes them to the Almighty, for 
it represents God as being as bad as Satan would be 
if he could, and worse than he could be if he would. 
But this is no more in accordance with the attributes 
of the Divine Being than the devouring of an infant 
by a wild beast is in accordance with the tender 
love of its mother. Hence, if those who choose to 
believe such diabolical teachings concerning the 
Deity, had chosen Satan for their God, they would 
have acted more consistently, and been free from 
this terrible scandal against the Almighty. There- 
fore, the proper disposition to l^e made of these 
teachings is to class them with the damnable heresies 
that were to be brought into the church. 

Among the passages of Scripture adduced to sus- 
tain the abominable notion of predestination, as 



97 

presented above, the following are the most con- 
spicuous : " The Lord made all things for Himself. 
He made the wicked for the day of evil." True, 
but He did not make the wicked do wickedly ; but, 
after they became wicked and remained in their 
wickedness, then He consigned them to the day of 
evil, or the punishment of that day, for " the wicked 
are to be turned into hell, and all the nations that 
forget God." 

Again : " I make peace and create evil." That 
is. He checks the violence of the wicked, and brings 
evil upon the workers of iniquity, as is taught every- 
where; but He does not create the evil works of the 
wicked, for such are their works, not His. 

'' Lord, I know that the wa^^ of a man is not in 
himself." This is construed to imply that no matter 
what way a man goes, that is the way he is forced 
to go, and he can go no other; whereas, the text 
teaches that the way he should go, or the right way, 
is not in himself, for the carnal mind is enmity 
against God, and cannot be brought into that way 
without Divine assistance, which it can always have, 
and is sure to have ; for Christ, being the light that 
lighteneth every man that cometh into the world, 
through that light or enliglitening He presents 
Himself to the man as the living and true way, and 
shows him that His way," or the right way, is not in 
himself, but that He is the way and the life. 

" For we know tliat all things work together for 
good to them that love God, to them who are called 
according to His purpose." That is, according to 
5 



98 

His purpose as He purposed in Christ Jesus, before 
the foundation of the world. 

" For whom He did foreknow, He also did pre- 
destinate to be conformed to the image of His Son." 
As Christ was foreordained to be their Saviour, if 
they would accept Him, so they were predestined to 
be conformed to His image. 

" Elect according to the foreknowledge of God 
the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto 
obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ." 
This, instead of teaching that man is predestined to 
be saved or to be damned, is in perfect harmony 
with the plan of salvation as embracing his free 
agency. For God foreknew and determined that 
man should be a free agent, and that if he chose 
evil instead of good, that through sanctification of 
the Spirit, or the w^ork of the Spirit, and the sprink- 
ling of the blood of Jesus Christ, He would bring 
about his salvation, notwithstanding his fall ; and so 
this obedience, which would be of faith, would be 
accepted as a substitute for the other. Hence, they 
were elect according to the foreknowledge of God 
the Father, just as Jesus Christ, His Son, was fore- 
ordained according to the same foreknowledge, and 
with their own free will were excepted through the 
provision made by the foreordaining of Christ, or 
by their complying with the terms of the provision 
which this foreordaining constituted. Hence we see 
that, instead of God foreordaining man to eternal 
damnation, and fixing his destiny so that over it he 
could not have the least control, he was not only 



99 

created with the inherency of self will or free 
agency, but, even before he was created, there was 
a provision made for him in case he should fail to 
use his liberty in accordance with the will of the 
Almighty who created him with this dignifying 
attribute; and that, notwithstanding his fall, this 
free will or agency stands forth as a manifest feature 
of the plan of salvation ; and that this free agency is 
that which the w^hole fabric is founded upon, with- 
out which the Bible, instead of being the Word of 
the living and true God, would be but a scandal 
a2:ainst Him. 



Mystery. 

" Now to Him who is of power to establish you 
according to my Gospel, and the preaching of Jesus 
Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, 
which was kept secret since the world began. But 
now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the 
Prophets, according to the commandment of the 
everlasting God, made known to all nations for the 
obedience of faith." — Bomans^ XVI ch,, 23th and 
26th vs. Here we see that the preaching of Jesus 
was not according to any mystery, but according to 
the revelation of the mystery which from the begin- 
ning of the world to that time had been kept secret. 
But now, says the Apostle, " is made manifest, and 
by the Scriptures of the Prophets, according to the 
commandment of the everlasting God, made known 
to all nations for the obedience of faith.'^ That is, 
this which was kept secret, which secret constituted 
the mystery which had been made manifest by the 
Scriptures of the Prophets, according to the com- 
mandment of the everlasting God, was then made 
known, not to a few persons to transmit to others as 
private knowledge, but to all nations, or all the 
world, for the obedience of faith, not in a mystery, 
but in this revelation of the mystery; that is, that 
Christ came into the world to save both Jew and 



101 

Gentile, or all sinners. That fallen man required a 
substitute, and that Christ was an all-sufficient sacri- 
fice ; that through Him alone is redemption ; that 
there is no other name given under heaven whereby 
we are to be saved but the name of Jesus Christ, of 
Nazareth, who died for our sins and rose again for 
our justification; who ascended into heaven, and 
now, as our intercessor, sitteth at the right hand of 
God ; from thence expecting or waiting till His foes 
be made His footstool. This is what was made mani- 
fest by the Scriptures of the Prophets, and, according 
to the commandment of the everlasting God, was 
then made known to all nations, for them to believe, 
embrace and live, according to I Corinthians, chap- 
ter n, 7th verse : " But we speak the wisdom of God 
in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God 
ordained before the world unto our glory." Here, 
in this verse, we see that the mystery spoken of is 
the knowledge that the Christian has, and con- 
cerning which he can teach ; which knowledge 
is the result of experience, or is the experience of 
the Christian, and which constitutes the difference 
between the knowledge that the worldling can have 
and that which the Christian possesses, as shown in 
the next verse, for says he, it is that wisdom " which 
none of the princes of this world knew." And 
hence it is that which the Christian knows, that 
those of the world do not know, and this which the 
Christian alone knows, is the reality of the Divine 
presence of Jesus Christ, or Christ in him the hope 
of glory. Hence, if the princes of this world had 



102 

understood this wisdom, which is the perfection of 
the believer, they would not have crucified the Lord 
of Glory, but would have gloried in Him as their 
Lord. But those who have not the spirit do not 
understand the intrinsical reality of Christianity; to 
them this innateness is a mystery. But when they 
are converted and receive the Holy Spirit, then 
there is no more mystery, because it is all revealed 
unto them. Ephesians, HI ch., 3d verse: "How 
that by revelation He made known unto me the 
mystery; as I wrote afore in few words." Here 
we see that as the mystery was revealed unto him so 
he revealed it unto them, though in few words. 
Fourth verse : " Whereby when ye read ye may 
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." 
Here we see that if he had not revealed the mystery 
unto them they would not have understood his knowl- 
edge of it, for they would not have been foolish 
enough to believe that such a one as Paul understood 
the Gospel, because he told them that he understood 
a mystery. Fifth verse : " Which in other ages was 
not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now 
revealed unto His holy Apostles and Prophets by 
the Spirit." And what is it that was not made 
known unto the sons of men in other ages ? Why 
just that which is revealed in the next verse, " That 
the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same 
body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the 
Gospel." Ephesians, chapter I, 9th verse : " Having 
made known unto us the mystery of His will, accord- 
ing to His good pleasure which He hath purposed 



103 

in Himself." Here we see that God made known 
the mystery of His will. But to accord with the 
teachings of those who talk about a glorious mys- 
tery, and those who hold that they are teachers of 
the mystery, and that they alone are to be heard 
concerning it, it would be necessary for this verse to 
read thus : That God has made known the fact that 
His will is a mj'Stery. But, to the contrary of this, 
not only do we see that God has made known unto 
us His will, but that He was pleased to do so; that 
it was a pleasure to God to wipe out all mystery, 
and make plain to all men His will concerning them. 



The Word. 

If Christ was not at the right hand of God we 
should have no intercessor. If Christ had not risen 
from the dead there would have been no justifica- 
tion. If Christ had not died there would have been 
no atonement. If Christ had not preached and 
practiced there would have been no Gospel. If 
Christ had not been born there w^ould have been no 
Saviour ; neither would that prophet have been 
raised up unto them of their brethren, like unto 
Moses, and neither would the Child, the Son, the 
Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the 
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, have been. 
And now let those who entertain the idea that 
Christ existed before He was born of the Virgin 
Mary, endeavor to ascertain which of these asser- 
tions are false ; but if they all prove correct, then 
let them endeavor to find out what there would 
have been of Jesus Christ, if all this which has been 
spoken of had not come to pass. For if there be any 
sense in language, the one who was born of the Vir- 
gin Mary fulfilled all these characters. Yet, when 
He is divested of His birth, and all that followed it, 
they might say that He was the Word, for " the 
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Yea, 
the Word was made flesh, or to exist in the flesh, 



105 

and, as has been said before, this Word was the 
Divine nature of Jesus, which was imparted to Him 
by the Father, when He begat Him, and this nature 
was not only the Word of God (for that was then its 
name), but it was God. Yea, it could not have been 
other than God, and was the same that was in the 
beginning, for that which w^as called the Word was 
God in Christ, and that Word w^as what was in the 
beginning with God, and was God. Not that the 
Word was the Word in the beginning, but that 
which was then the Word was in the beginning. So 
that John, in referring to the Word, did not mean 
that Christ, as the Word, was in the beginning, but 
that the Divinity of Christ, which was then the 
Word, was in the beginning with God, and was 
God, apart of Himself. Hence the glorj^ of the 
Word, or the Word's glory, was seen after He was 
begotten of the Father, but not before, for when 
they beheld it, it was as the glory of the only begot- 
ten of the Father, but before it was not His glory, 
for His Divine nature w^as with God, and was God, 
and there was no God but the Father. 



The Valley of Dry Bones. 

" The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried 
me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down . 
in the midst of the valley, which was full of bones. 
And caused me to pass by them round about ; and 
behold, there were very many in the open valley ; 
and lo, they were very dry." — EzeUel^ XXXVII ch. 
Here the prophet was permitted the most meagre 
view possible of that which was to be presented to 
his mind, whereby he was to get an understanding 
of the reality of the case with respect to all the 
house of Israel. This was simply a starting point, 
to show to the prophet what was to be the future of 
those whose condition was thus represented ; and 
thus the most that the prophet could make of them 
was that they were bones which were very dry, and 
then, continuing, he says : " And He said unto me, 
Son of man, can these bones live ?" Here the 
prophet failed to declare the fact, and left it to the 
Lord to answer the question. And how did He 
answer it ? Why, just as He alone was capable of 
doing it, as says the prophet : " Again He said unto 
me, prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, 
0, ye dry bones, hear the Word of God. Thus 
saith the Lord God unto these bones : behold, I will 
cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live." 



107 

Here, though there is but the bones of men, and 
they dry, yea, very dry, God says unto them : 
I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall 
live. Here God presents before us just enough 
of the reality of man to allow us to understand what 
He is going to do, and upon whom it is to be done, 
and then says He, " I will lay sinews upon you." 
Plere we have the work of reconstruction fairly 
began: the bones, which were very dry, with sinews 
upon them. And who were they ? What were 
they ? They were the whole house of Israel. And 
so the work of reconstruction goes on, for, says He, 
" I will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with 
skin.'^ Here is the regular course of reconstruc- 
tion : the last that remains is the first restored. 
First, the framework, then the sinews, then the 
flesh, and then the covering of skin ; and then says 
the Lord, I will " put breath into you.'' What 
breath ? Surely the breath of life, for, says He, 
" And ye shall live.'' And again, says He, '' And 
ye shall know that I am the Lord.'' Did not they 
know it always ? No. " The dead know not any- 
thing." Through all this there is not so much as a 
shadow of such an idea as that the house of Israel, 
or any of it, was alive in heaven, for, says He, 
" These are the whole house of Israel." Yea, those 
dry bones represented the whole house of Israel. 
But what a picture to represent the glorious reality 
of the songs of praise, the unspeakable rejoicing, 
the everlasting felicity that, according to the hereti- 
cal teachings of the present age, are the reality of 



108 

the situation of the righteous of the house of Israel, 
not where there are such things as dry bones, but 
in heaven, and even before the throne itself. Alas 
for their hope. But thus it is that the fabulous 
. teachings of the present day, and that of the Sacred 
Volume, difier. The fabulous teach that heaven is 
the place of reward, and that death is the gateway 
thither. But God carries the prophet's vision down 
to the Valley of Dry Bones, and gives him a clear 
view of them, and shows him that death is the gate- 
way thither, and that there is where the whole house 
of Israel is. Hence, the difference between fallacy 
and truth is the difterence between the most of the 
teachings of the present day and the picture which, 
in this chapter, is presented before us. And when 
the prophet again prophesied, he saw the fulfillment 
of all that was spoken concerning them. He saw 
that as man was created at the first, that so these 
were re-created, but that there was no breath in 
them, just as there was no breath in Adam ; and 
then he saw that breath came into them. Here the 
prophet had presented before him the whole process 
of reconstruction or re-creation, beginning at the 
bones, until the whole man was completed, and then 
the call was made. But where? i^ot to heaven, 
for those imaginary beings to return to their earthly 
tenements, from which they had been so long and 
happily separated, but the call was from the four 
winds : " Come from the four winds, O, breath, and 
breathe upon these slain, that they may live.'' Here 
the work was completed, the man was re-created 



109 

just as He was at the first created, and the breath 
of life animated their organisms the same as it did 
that of Adam ; and then says the prophet : " They 
lived and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great 
army.'' Here the difl:erence between the reality of 
the nature of man and the heretical teachings con- 
cerning his being of an immortal nature is clearly 
manifested, for the man was re-created as he was 
first created, and re-animated as he was first ani- 
mated, and in both cases the organic structure and 
the breath of life were what and all that constituted 
his existence. But when is all this to transpire ? 
When? Why just when the Lord said it should, 
for says He unto the prophet, " Son of man, these 
bones are the whole house of Israel : behold, they 
say, our bones are dried, and our hope is lost : we 
are cut oft* from our parts. (But the present-day 
believers tell us that at death they just enter upon 
that from which these were cut off*.) Therefore 
prophesy and say unto them. Thus saith the Lord 
God ; behold, my people, I will open j'our graves, 
and cause you to come up out of your graves, and 
bring you unto the land of Israel. And ye shall 
know that I am the Lord, when I have opened j^our 
graves, my people, and brought you up out of 
your graves. And shall put my spirit in you, and 
ye shall live, and I shall put you in your own land : 
then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken 
it, and performed it, saith the Lord." Was it when 
He called them from heaven ? was it w^hen He 
declared that the immortal beings which existed in 



110 

the felicitous regions of eternal glory, who had 
escaped from this sin-cursed earth through the 
Divine blessing of death, should return to their 
earthly abode and again occupy those dusty shells 
which He had again created ? Alas for such ideas. 
But why not entertain them, for they would be but 
the reality of the teachings of the present day ? 
But mark the difference between this and the reality 
of God's Word, for says He : " I will open your 
graves and cause you to come up out of your 
graves." And who was this J. ^ Was it God? And 
who was this you ? Was it God's people ? Yea, I 
was God, and you was His people. Therefore, as 
this I was God, who brought them out of their 
graves, and this J was He Himself, you was the peo- 
ple themselves. If I were God, who thus re-created 
them, just as surely you were those who were thus 
re-created. Hence, this J was God's own self, and 
this you was their own selves. It was no one but 
God who re-created, it was none but those who 
were dead who were re-created. This not only 
shows the process of re-creation, but plainly pre- 
sents the fact that re-creation is necessary, in order 
that these may again exist, and hence shows that 
they do not and will not exist until that re-creation 
takes place, and that when the organic structure is 
again brought into existence, and the breath of life 
breathed into it, that then it will be all that it ever 
was, and that that all is necessary to constitute its 
existence, and that prior to that time these souls 
will not exist. 



The Resurrection. 

As God made man of the dust of the ground, and 
that man returned to dust again, it would be no 
more trouble for God to resurrect or re-create that 
identical man of some other dust than it would 
be for Him to re-create him of that particular dust 
to which he had returned. For he was made of the 
dust of the ground, and not any particular dust, 
except that particular part of the dust which he 
constituted, or, rather, that constituted him. So 
that as the man was made of dust and returned to 
dust, the dust that he was and the dust to which he 
returned were identical, one and the same dust, the 
same as and with all other dust. And it was not 
because he was dust that he was man, but because 
of the making or the being made, or the being that 
he was after he was made. Hence if God had left 
that particular dust of which Adam was first made 
undisturbed where it was, and had taken a parcel of 
dust from another place and made him in like man- 
ner, this would not have changed the case with 
respect to Adam. No,-there would not have been 
the least shadow of diflerence. So then, as Adam 
was made of the dust of the ground and returned 
to that particular dust again, if that particular dust 
had been deposited exactly where it had been taken 



112 

from, then the dust of the ground would have been 
just as it was before the man was made, and just as 
though he never had been made, and the man would 
not be in existence, for the existence of the dust of 
the ground does not constitute his existence. So 
that if at the resurrection or re-creation, God should 
take that particular dust which we supposed Him 
not to take at the first, and of which Adam was first 
made, and should make him or raise him to life 
again as he was when he w^as first made, the partic- 
ular dust of which , he was made would make no 
diflerence to his case whatever, but he would be the 
same, the identical being, for the dust of the ground 
was not the man, but the being that was made of 
the dust was the man. Therefore it is not the dust 
but the making that constitutes the man, for one 
parcel of dust is the same as another parcel of dust, 
and the first parcel is the same as the last; and as 
both parcels are dust and nothing but dust, it would 
not matter of which parcel Adam was made or to 
which parcel he returned, or of which parcel he was 
resurrected or re-created, for it is all one and the 
same one dust. Therefore we may not wonder at 
the hmguage of Job, when he^'says, ''As the waters 
fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth 
up; So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the 
heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be 
raised out of their sleep." Thus we see that man, 
unlike the tree that is cut down, does not yield a 
germ or shoot that will spring into existence ; but as 
the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth 



113 

down and riseth not. And why does he not rise ? 
why does not that shoot come forth ? Why, because 
he is not as the tree that is cut down, but as the 
flood that decayeth and drieth up. And as the flood, 
when it is decayed and dried up, is not, does not 
exist, so man, when he lieth down and returneth to 
his dust, is not ; for if otherwise Job would not have 
declared him to be as the flood instead of as the 
tree. But he knew that he was dust, and that unto 
dust he should return, and seeing that the work- 
manship of his being was to be dissolved, that he 
was to pass away, and that he was to be as though 
he had not been, he exclaims, " If a man die, shall 
he live again ?" and then, as though he had received 
an answer direct from the Almighty, he says, " all 
the days of my appointed time will I wait till my 
change come," and then, with all the confidence 
that that answer could excite, he says, " Thou shalt 
call and I will answer Thee ; Thou wilt have a desire 
to the works of Thine hands," not to the dust to 
which he was to return, but to that workmanship of 
the Almighty which he saw was to be dissolved. 
And then continues, " For I know that my Redeemer 
liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon 
the earth : And though after my skin worms destroy 
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God : Whom I 
shall see for myself, and mine eye shall behold, and 
not another ; though my veins be consumed within 
me." This is equivalent to saying, that though I 
return to the dust of the ground and the workman- 
ship that I am shall have vanished away, and though 



114 



it be with me as though I had not been, yet, when 
the hand that made me and fashioned me brings me 
forth again, it will not be another Job, but I myself, 
who will see God. For it was the workmanship 
w^hich Job referred to, and not the dust of which he 
was made and to which he was to return. So the 
resurrection of the dead, the wonderful manifesta- 
tion of the power of God in bringing into existence 
those who have passed away, of bringing about that 
change which alone could satisfy David ; the fruition 
of that hope for which Paul was bound with chains ; 
the realizing of that to which Abraham looked when 
he was about to ofier up Isaac; of that which was 
the only comfort of the aiHicted Job ; of that to 
which Christ and His Apostles pointed with so much 
precision ; that which ramifies the whole organiza- 
tion, of Christianity, and without which it would 
vanish into nothingness ; that wonderful work that 
is to be accomplished has not been placed on record 
to be received and believed simply because Omnipo- 
tence is not limited in power. But, notwithstand- 
ing the scavelings and squirmings of skeptics and 
scorners, and the mystifiers of the Scripture and 
the would-be expounders of the Word, the wonderful 
work of resurrecting the dead is not only known to 
Omniscience, but it hath pleased the Almighty to 
reveal it in His Holy Word, as practicable in the 
sight of man. 



The Mind is not the Spirit, but the Mind is the Brain. 

It is evident, accordiDg to the organization of 
man and the teachings of the Scriptures, that there 
is nothing to induce the belief that the mind is the 
spirit; neither that it is possible that the operations 
of the mind or the reasoning faculty is, or is a part 
of what is, in reality the spirit. For a man may 
lose his reason in part, or he may be wholly deprived 
of it, or he may not have possessed it except in part, 
or he may not have possessed it at all, yet he would 
be a man, and, hence, the possessor of a spirit; for 
there is a spirit in man. And if there be a spirit in 
man, notwithstanding the fact that he may have lost 
his reason, or that he may never have possessed it, 
it is evident that the spirit is not the mind or the 
reasoning power, or else when the reason was gone 
the spirit would be gone. Moreover, the Scriptures, 
in pointing to this subject, are very plain, and show 
clearly that the separation of the spirit from the 
body means death. For when Jesus raised the 
damsel, her spirit came again, and she lived, thus 
showing that at death her spirit departed, and that 
without her spirit she was dead. Again, the fact 
that faith without works is dead, is shown from the 
fact that the body without the spirit is dead. And 
again, when viewing the subject in connection with 



116 

the realities of nature, as each must necessarily 
realize them, we see that when the mind produces a 
thought, and that thought is thrown out by the 
voice and wounds the feelings of another, that that 
thought is no more the mind than a stone thrown 
from the same person's hand would be his hand. 
For the hand gets the stone from somewhere, and 
the mind gets the thought from somewhere, and as 
the hand uses the arm and casts the stone, so the 
mind uses the voice and casts the thought; and 
hence we see in this a cause and an effect, neither 
of which, it wil] be seen, can be the spirit. More- 
over, the mind is something that the man has 
always, and which is required to act, to do service, 
and the thoughts that it produces are simply the 
result of that action. And the mind cannot gene- 
rate or produce without first gathering the materials 
for that production, any more than a grist mill can 
produce flour without grain ; and it would be just 
as consistent to say that a barrel of flour was a grist 
mill, as it would be to say that the ideas or thoughts 
that the mind produces are the mind. Hence it is 
evident that the mind of man is not what many 
suppose it to be — the spirit of man — but that it is 
that acting or producing power; that it is the brain, 
that literal organ which constitutes such a prominent 
part of the physical organization ; for that whicli is 
termed the mental part is only the result of the 
action of the physical organism, the one being the cause 
and the other being simply the effect. For if the mind were 
something outside of the physical organism, it would 



117 

be supernatural, and could comprehend that which 
was not natural, or that did not belong to nature. 
But, instead of this, the comprehension of man is 
confined to a physical existence, or this present state 
of things ; and hence we see that men are difierently 
informed and capable of diflferent things, according 
to the different circumstances in which they have 
been placed. For it is not for a farmer to describe 
the scenes of the ocean, or for a sailor to teach 
agriculture, and the reason why their minds do not 
produce in these respective ways, is because their 
brains have not gathered, or had the opportunity to 
gather, the materials for such production. But each 
having gathered according to the position he has 
occupied, the brain is capable of producing such 
ideas as constitute a description of that for which it 
has had the opportunity of gathering the materials. 
Hence, all the originality that there is in the pro- 
ductions of the brain, is that which is the result of 
combination, and that which is drawn or taken from 
that which already exists ; and therefore the mind 
must first gather, and then produce, as, when a man 
thinks he ought to do a certain thing, the mind does 
not produce that thought until it has first gathered 
the materials, which materials are the facts that exist 
as a reason why that thing should be done. But in 
the absence of or aside from the brain, there is no such 
thing as gathering or producing. A man may lose 
either his arms, his legs, his ears, his eyes, his nose, 
or his speech, and yet his mind may be uninjured. 
But touch his brain, and the mind swerves, and as 



118 

it degenerates, all manifestations that denote the 
presence of the mind are enfeebled until the brain 
is incapable of gathering, and its productions cease 
and then that which is termed the mind is gone. 
Hence it is evident that the mind is not the spirit, 
and it is just as evident that it is not a combination 
of effects, which most certainly establishes the fact 
that it is the brain. And as this thing, or no thing, 
that is called the mind cannot maintain its equi- 
librium with the least defect or derangement of the 
brain, it is manifestly certain that, instead of its 
being a cause, it is simply an effect, and that the 
brain, being the producing power, is the only reality 
of mind, and that there is no power that controls or 
even affects it, except as it is affected by or through 
the powers of the physical organism, with which it 
is in perfect harmony, and of which it forms such a 
conspicuous part. And how unreasonable to say 
that the brain is not the mind, Avhile all are forced 
to admit that there cannot be a single idea produced 
without the action of the brain, and that if the 
brain is deranged there cannot be produced a single 
reliable thought. Again, if you wish to determine 
as to whether the mind is something independent 
of the physical organism, something which the 
brain is not, cut the nerves that connect the 
eyes with the brain and you have a blind mind. 
Close the ears and you have a deaf mind ; destroy 
the speech and you have a dumb mind, for this 
thing called the mind, being simply effect, can only 



119 

exist in proportion to the causes which are the func- 
tions of the whole man. And in proportion as these 
are absent, so this so-called mind is absent ; as when 
a man is deaf, dumb and blind, there are three 
prominent defects in the phj^sical organism, and 
this thing called the mind is a failure just so far as 
these defects exist, else it Avould manifest itself 
independent of them. Hence this thing called the 
mind is diminished three parts of the whole by 
the absence of these essential organs. Then destroy 
the smell and taste, and five parts are absent, and 
all just in proportion to the defects in the physical 
organism. Then destroy the feeling, which can be 
produced in any part of the physical organism, and 
the last shadow of the so-called mind disappears. 
Hence, when all these parts are removed, there is 
nothing left but the natural materials which consti- 
tuted the physical structure ; and hence, the cause 
being absent, there is no eflcct. But if all these 
parts were re-united and put in full healthy action, 
each moving in harmony with the other, they would 
be the physical parts of the physical structure, and 
these physical parts would constitute the same 
organism that the absence of each part made defi- 
cient in proportion to its absence. Hence, when all 
these parts were combined and put in action, what- 
ever was the result of that action would necessarily 
be an effect, the cause of which would be their 
action. Hence, it is evident that outside or aside 
from the brain and its kindred physical auxiliaries, 



120 

there is no such thing as mind, as the Psalmist, 
146th, has plainly shown us when he said : " His 
breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that 
very day his thoughts perish." 



4 



A Few Sketches of the Mind, as Presented by the 
Physiologist, or the Physiologist and the Mind. 

And, as it might be supposed that the physiolo- 
gist is the proper person to define the mind, it will 
be well to keep in view the fact that all his opera- 
tions are confined to the physical organism, and that 
instead of developing what is called the mind, He 
in reality only develops the wonderful powers of the 
physical organism. Hence, says an eminent physi- 
ologist, " the mind may be defined as that something 
which thinks, feels, and causes voluntary motion, 
and belongs only to man." And then, as if he 
were determined to have a mind somewhere outside 
of the reality of things, he adds : " True, the honey- 
comb of the bee is constructed with all the precision 
of consummate art. The fox crosses and recrosses 
his track, that he may mislead the hounds. The 
horse neighs when he approaches his old home, 
showing how joyfully he remembers the place. Still 
more like exalted humanity, the faithful dog grieves 
over the decease of his master, loses his appetite, 
pines away, and dies. -Yet all this is not mental 
action. It is but the effect of instinct." And then 
he might well have added, that here his folly was 
manifest; for, says he, consummate art, the most 
sagacious manifestations, the remembering or call- 
6 



122 

ing to mind of that whicli has passed, the knowledge 
of loss, and sensitive grief, are not mental action. 
Here he shows the reality of mental action, and then 
denies the existence of that which he has just 
described, and thereby shows how little he knows 
of the mind. And so all his efforts to define the 
mind terminate only in establishing the fact that 
the brain, and nothing else, is the mind, as will be 
clearly seen by the following. For, says he : '' The 
fact that the brain is used when the mind feels, is 
certain from the fact that when a person is stunned, 
or the brain is affected in various other ways, no 
feeling is or can be produced." Here he has dis- 
posed of his imaginary mind, and frankly confessed 
that the brain is the mind. And then he adds, that 
'' How the mind uses the brain, is not known. '^ 
Very true ; and it is evident from the foregoing that 
it never will be known. Again, says he : " That the 
mind uses the nerves in the act of feeling, is certain 
from the effects of injury; thus, a young lady, fall- 
ing on a piece of glass, cut oft* the nerve at the 
middle of the elbow, and has not felt anything since 
with the little finger or the adjoining part of the 
next finger, in which part the nerve commences." 
This is quite reasonable, for its communication with 
the brain was cut oft', and hence no feeling was com- 
municated to the brain. But why did not the 
so-called mind make it feel, and let it know that 
the brain had not all to say about feeling. And 
again, says he : " The organs of sense is the name 
given to those parts of the body in which the nerves 



123 

of sensation commence. They are those parts 
through which, or by means of which, the nerves 
are acted on. They difier from each other on 
account of the difference in the nature of the things 
which are designed to act on the nerves through 
them. The eye is adapted to be acted upon by 
what is called light, and by means of which things 
are seen. The ear is adapted to be acted upon by 
waves of air, by means of which sounds are heard. 
The nose is adapted to be acted upon by odors, and 
a person can smell. The mouth is adapted to be 
acted upon by the savory properties of bodies, and 
thus a person tastes. When an object is warmer or 
colder than the skin, the nerves commencing in it 
wdll be acted on, as they will be, also, by the pres- 
sure of anything, and the mind learns the presence, 
temperature, hardness, etc., of an object.^' Hence, it 
is evident that as the mind learns these things by 
the application of them to the physical parts, that 
the realizing of them is through the physical part 
or parts acted upon ; and as the brain is the only 
one organ which, by its auxiliaries or the branchings 
forth of itself, ramifies the whole organism, it is 
evident that the brain receives its information at the 
point acted upon, and that it, and nothing else, com- 
municates the feeling or sensation to the w^hole 
being. Again, says he : " There are six kinds of 
organs of sense used in feeling, or, in other words, 
to gather all the knowledge ice possess of all the things in 
creation around us. For w^liat knowledge of a thing 
does a man possess that he does not acquire by see- 



124 

ing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, or pressing 
it ? (Mark it, reader, what has he done with his so- 
called mind?) The manner in which a person feels 
is this, some object acts upon or through some 
organ of sense, thereby an eflect is produced upon 
the nerve commencing in the organ of sense, and 
extending to the brain through the nerve, an eifect 
is produced on or through the brain." This teaches 
so plainly that the brain is the mind, that when we 
look at it soberly it looks as if the author's brain 
turned when he adds " that thereby an effect is pro- 
duced on the mind." Again, says he : " Five things 
are therefore necessary to produce a feeling or sen- 
sation in the ordinary way : first, an object; second, 
an organ of sense ; third, a nerve ; fourth, the 
brain; fifth, the mind," and then adds the following 
inference : " The kind of sensation will therefore 
depend upon the action of the object, the state of 
the organ of sense, the nerves, the brain, and the 
mind; and, that the sensation may be natural and 
the knowledge correct, it is necessary that all parts 
of the body mentioned be healthy." Here the 
physical organism is placed on its own account, and 
made responsible for every, even the slightest, devi- 
ation of the mind; so that the eye is not to be 
depended upon unless it is healthy. A defect in the 
nerve forms an obstruction between the visual 
organ and the brain, and, in fine, the mind, as he 
terms it, must have everything in the physical 
organism perfect, that everything may be done per- 
fectly ; and then, that which is done is all that ho 



125 

has to constitute that mind. Hence, it is evident 
that that which he calls the mind, instead of being 
cause, is simply eftect, and, therefore, according to 
the realities of the case, he is correct. For effect 
will necessarily have the perfection or imperfection 
of the cause. Again, says he : " There are two 
kinds of nerves, one of which may be said to com- 
mence in the various parts of the body and extend 
to the brain ; the other commencing at the brain 
and extending into every part of the body ; for the 
action through one kind of nerves takes place 
towards the brain; through the other, from the 
brain." Here we may say with propriety, that this 
author, though endeavoring to establish the vision- 
ary mind, nevertheless plainly pictures before us the 
brain as enthroned and monarch of the whole organ- 
ization, in communication with every part, even to 
the foundation of a single hair, and master of every 
movement. Again says he : " The mind causes the 
muscles to contract or relax by, in the first place, 
causing the brain to produce nervous influence ; in 
the second place, causing it to act upon the muscles, 
by the contraction and relaxation of which a desired 
motion can be produced." And then, says he : " In 
the production of voluntary motion it is the duty of 
the brain, at the wish of the mind, to produce nerv- 
ous influence ; it is the duty of the nerves to trans- 
mit the influence to the muscles ; the duty of the 
muscles to contract or relax the instant they receive 
the influence which impels them to the one or the 
other." And then, adds the inference : " Since the 



126 

speech, expression of face, gesticulation, and every- 
thing by which the mind communicates its ideas, 
exhibits its emotions, or acts upon the world, depends 
upon the actions of the muscles ; and, since these 
are controlled by the brain and nerves, it is essential 
to efficient action or expression that the muscles, 
brain and nerves be preserved in health.'^ Here he 
tells us that at the wish of the mind, the brain does 
certain things, and then tells us that the perfection of 
an effect will depend upon the perfection of the caiise^ 
thus, making the physical organism responsible as 
the cause and the effect denoting the condition of 
the cause, and concentrating everything in the brain, 
he reduces this outside mind to a something which, 
in his imagination, does the wishing. But what is 
this wish or thing they call the mind ? Of what is 
it constituted ? Where is it located ? What are its 
constituent parts ? Answer : Its nature is incogniza- 
ble ; its reality is less than a shadowy and its location 
is in the mere shady regions of the imagination. 
Hence, as the physiologist is necessarily ignorant of 
the nature and powers of this so-called mind, he 
represents it as something that wishes or wills, for, 
as in fact it does not exist, this is the best that he 
can do with his imagination. He knows how the 
brain and its kindred auxiliaries operate, but he 
does not know what makes them operate ; but if he 
would read tlie seventh verse of the second chapter 
of Genesis, he would see how this wonderful organ- 
ism was put in action, and know what keeps all its 
parts in harmonious operation, and would not need 



127 

to trouble himself concerning this something that 
the realities of his own teachings so plainly show 
does not exist. This, however, should not be 
accepted as derogatory to the study of physiology, 
for, with the question before you. What is the mind ? 
and with an honest determination to find out, there 
is but one way that it can be more easily determined. 
And when we become acquainted with the full real- 
ity of things as embraced in the physical organism, 
not only the fact, but the necessity of the resurrec- 
tion or re-creation, is plainly manifested in the 
adaptation of the physical structure to that necessity, 
and immortality in man is plainly shown to exist 
only in fancy instead of fact. So that man, stripped 
of immortality and developed in his true nature, is 
found to possess nothing that is not mortal except 
the breath of life. And the fact is plainly developed 
that those who attempt to unfold the mysteries of 
the so-called mind are following the delusion of 
those who teach the immortality of man and his 
existence independent of the resurrection, and even 
independent of himself, the absurdity of which 
is not only plainly and pointedly taught in the 
Sacred Volume, but is clearly unfolded by the true 
physiology of man. 



\ 



Conversion. 

In the plan of salvation there are embraced two 
grand principles or moving causes, the first of which 
is fear, the other that of love. But these two ele- 
ments or principles of operation are not, as many 
suppose, blended in their workings, but, though both 
may exist and act at the same time, the one is in force 
or present in that proportion which the other is absent 
or dormant. And the idea that fear is an essential 
element in a Christian, is altogether a mistake, for 
it is only a requisite in the absence of perfect love. 
Hence, in the work of conversion, love does not woo 
unless fear has first roused the mind to perceive its 
danger. For the carnal mind being enmity against 
God, it cannot be subject to the law of God, which 
law is love. So, in this case, the man can change 
his mind, but, though willing that it should be done, 
he cannot change his heart. For this change of 
heart is produced not by fear, as the change of mind 
is, but by the love of God being shed abroad in our 
hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 
And hence the difference between Christians and 
those who are not, for those who are not Christians 
love as man loves, but Christians love as God loves, 
because they have the love of God to love with. 
Hence fear is one element and love another, and, in 



129 

the practical workings of the plan of salvation, each 
performs its office. Yet there is not the slightest 
blending of the two. But as the one performs its 
duty and retires, so the other supplants it, and 
operates or rules in its stead. And so fear is an 
essential in such proportion as love does not exist. 
Therefore, when love is perfect, so that it controls 
every action, then fear is fully supplanted by love, 
and thus perfect love casteth out fear. Hence, not- 
withstanding that fear is an essential element in the 
plan of salvation, and is a forerunner of love, it is 
evident that the proper element to control the 
Christian is that of love, destitute of all fear ; and 
that he becomes a perfect Christian according as fear 
recedes and love advances, or in that proportion which 
love supplants fear. So that when he is a perfect 
Christian he has that love which casteth out fear. 
And hence, instead of his being actuated more or 
less by fear, all his actions are prompted by love, 
and so he has that faith which does not operate by 
fear, but worketh by love. 

Therefore the work of conversion, though brought 
about in so many different ways, and seemingly the 
production of such diverse circumstances, it is, 
nevertheless, the same one thing, produced by the 
same cause or causes; and, when fully considered, 
is found to embrace, iirst, the fact that man, in his 
natural state, is not what God requires him to be in 
order to be and remain His. Or, in other words, 
he is the offspring of that being who made choice 
of evil rather than good, and thus brought " sin into 



130 

the world and death by sin, so that death passed upon 
all in that all hath sinned." And thus the subject 
for conversion, or rather of conviction, first under- 
stands that he is a sinner ; secondly, that as Adam 
had the privilege to and did choose for himself, so 
also he has the privilege of choosing for himself, 
inasmuch as the provision has been made for such a 
choice. And he realizes that he is guilty and con- 
demned in the sight of God, and that if he remains 
so that death is the inevitable result; therefore, 
when the heavenly messenger first shows the sinner 
his situation, it is terrifying to him ; he is afraid of 
God, he fears to hear His name ; yea, the sight of a 
godly man worries him, and he mentally, if not 
apparently, trembles at the sight of himself as a 
condemned sinner. And so it is clearly manifest 
that fear is the first element or actor in the work of 
conversion, for the unawakened does not only not 
have the love of God, but he is destitute of the 
fear of God. But when the Spirit shows him his 
true situation, then he sees what he is in the sight 
of God, and trembles at His name; sees his lost 
condition, and begins to inquire, what shall I do to 
be saved ? And in this situation fear is all he knows ; 
it moves him, checks him, and surrounds him and 
gives him no rest until the Holy Spirit, having made 
him fully sensible of his guilt, his danger, his own 
helplessness, his utterly lost condition, shows him 
the provision which has been made for him, exhorts 
him to comply with its conditions, and accept salva- 
tion through the atoning blood and merits of Jesus 



131 

Christ; and here it is that he gets the first sight 
of the love of God. And when he has sincerely 
repented and obtained forgiveness of his sins through 
the death and resurrection of God's only begotten 
Son, then the love of God is shed abroad in his 
heart by the Holy Ghost; for then the Holy Spirit 
is given unto him, and is a witness of the loving 
kindness and tender mercies of God; and then his 
fears are dispelled and he realizes what the love of 
God' is. And no matter what the capacity of the 
convert, whether wonderfully great or insignificantly 
small, this is the reality of the case, no matter how 
expressed or by whom told. For the conditions of 
salvation are one, and God is no respecter of persons. 
His law is one law, and His people are but one. 
Hence, my unconverted friend, the conditions of 
salvation admit of no modification, because they 
are perfect, for God must maintain the dignity of 
all His attributes. His justice must stand firm; His 
power and wisdom must be apparent; His mercy 
must be manifest ; His love must be realized ; and 
until you have complied with the terms of the Gos- 
pel, and become a partaker of the Divine nature, 
you cannot belong to Christ. For " if any man have 
not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His." 

But some may inquire, must all this be first under- 
stood ? The answer is, no; it must be learned, and 
if it be asked how much must be known, the answer 
is, use that which you do know, and learn as fast as 
you can. If you know that Jesus Christ died for 
your sins, and rose again for your justification, do 



132 

not wait to know more ; and if you do not exactly 
understand this, do not wait to find it out ; or even 
if there is something telling you something that you 
do not understand at all, any further than that it will 
not allow you to enjoy sin and makes you feel bad 
about it, do not wait any longer, but go to God in 
prayer, and the whole thread will be unravelled ; 
and when you have fully understood it, perhaps you 
will wonder how you found it out. So do not hesi- 
tate a moment in endeavoring to secure your eternal 
welfare, for it is not because j^ou do not know that 
will keep you out of the bounds of God's mercy, but 
because you are not willing to know ; for God asks 
nothing of us but ourselves, and this is all that we 
have to give, and when we do this He gives us all 
that we need. And it should sufiice to secure the 
confidence of the unconverted to know that God 
has made them one promise of eternal salvation ; 
yet how many are there, and how easily compre- 
hended as are the following : " Whosoever believ- 
eth and is baptized shall be saved." And how 
simple this belief, for when the eunuch believed 
with all his heart, he believed that Jesus Christ was 
the Son of God, and then acted in accordance with 
his belief Again, "Repent and be baptized, every 
one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the 
remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the 
Holy Ghost." And again, " That if thou shalt con- 
fess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt 
believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from 
the dead, thou shalt be saved." And who is it that 



133 

cannot bring within his comprehension the import 
of one of these promises and act accordingly ? 
Nevertheless, all that is required is your free will to 
do so, and God will do the rest. And remember, 
that the work of conversion is a Divine work ; that 
the first impulse is the prompting of the Holy Spirit, 
and therefore take courage at the first whisper that 
calls you to repentance, and be assured that He who 
has begun a good work in you will finish it to the 
end. And do not suppose that God needs to be 
reconciled to you ; it is only that you should be 
reconciled to Him, and therefore God's work in 
behalf of your salvation is always done, and it only 
remains for you to do yours, by accepting what He 
has done. For " He so loved the w^orld that He 
gave His only begotten Son to die for us, that w^ho- 
soever believeth on Him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." Yet, notwithstanding that God 
has done so much, that He has done all, and left 
notliing undone, there are those, and many, w^ho are 
not wdliing to trust their case in the hands of Him 
vrho died on the cross. They fear to trust Him to 
mediate their case before the throne of that wonder- 
ful benign being who even suffered His only begot- 
ten Son to die in their stead. They could do 
anything else ; they could comply with any other 
requirement of the Gospel, but they could not put 
their case in the hands of the Lord Jesus and trust 
their all to Him, w^ho alone is able to save them. 
And now, my dear, doubting one, in order that you 
may see yourself as you are, and get rid of your 



134 

doubts and fears : Suppose yourself to have set out 
upon an expedition, and in your wanderings to have 
become entirely lost, and instead of being, as you 
had been, on an apparently straight road, and in a 
safe country, you find yourself in a bewildered 
condition, quite out of the bounds in which you 
expected to operate ; and that when you attempted 
to regain your former line of travel, your every 
efl:brt only carried you further into the wilds and 
dangers from which you were endeavoring to extricate 
yourself; and continuing your course through this 
chaotic scene for several days, with everything grow- 
ing worse, your strength failing you, your compan- 
ions in the same condition, and unable to render you 
the least assistance, the sky threatening a tempest, 
yourself at times immerged in swamp, at others 
entangled in briars and barely able to continue your 
journey; and then suppose, just at this epoch of 
your misery, you find yourself brought to a stand- 
still by the presence of a clift or range, which it is 
impossible for you to ascend, and yet you fully 
realize that pass it you must, or there you must 
perish ; and then, while in this deplorable condition, 
suppose that from out of the gloom that surrounds 
you, there should appear a gentle form, with pleas- 
ing countenance, who, in a sympathetic tone, would 
earnestly inquire the cause of your calamity, and 
tell you that though he could not, that there was a 
certain person that could put you over the barrier, 
and would be pleased to do so, and that if you would 
call to him he would give you his assistance imme- 



135 

diately ; and suppose, also, that this unexpected 
visitor should tell you that this barrier was the last 
you would have to surmount, and that as soon as 
you reached the other side you would be in safety, 
and have all your wants supplied, that your wounds 
would be healed, that you would be restored to 
health and vigor, be surrounded by friends, and that, 
though at some distance, your home would be in full 
view ; and then suppose that, notwithstanding all 
this, you turned with disdain from this courteous 
visitor, instead of gladly following his advice ; and 
then suppose that another, resembling the first, 
come and tell you the same story, and you answer, 
" I cannot comply with your counsel ; I do not 
believe that he can raise me over the height, it is so 
great ; moreover, he would not if he could.'' And 
then suppose that one of your companions replied, 
" I will call ;" and another said, "- 1 will call ;" and 
so they did call, and as soon as they called, lo, this 
person did not only answer, but made his appear- 
ance immediately, and said, " If you are willing 
I am ready to place you over, and I assure you 
that I am able to do so, without doing you the least 
harm, for I have landed on the other side in perfect 
safety all who have trusted to my power to do so,." 
and then you say, " Nay, I cannot trust you." And 
then suppose that one of your companions, who 
looks more like surviving than yourself, cries out, 
" Take me and put me over ; I will trust you," and 
the next moment you see him in safety on the 
heights beyond, and then you hear his deliverer 



186 

say, " Come, all of you, and be placed safely over, 
as he is." And you say, " No, I cannot trust you to 
put me over." My dear, doubting one, do you not 
see how exceedingly foolish you would be to occupy 
such a position ? And yet this is just the position 
you occupy. And then suppose that all the rest of 
your companions follow the example of the first, and 
are landed safely over, and you hear their mournful 
groanings turned into songs of rejoicing, and then 
this mighty succorer turns to you again, and says : 
" See, they are all safe, and now let me place you with 
your happy companions," but you reply, " I cannot 
trust you, you won't save me." My dear, doubting 
one, this, in reality, is your character ; this is the 
manner in which you treat the offers of Him who 
alone is able to save you. Yet He does not forsake 
you. And now suppose that those who had gotten 
over the barrier call to you and exhort you to 
place yourself in his arms as they did, and assure 
you that he can and will do for you just as he did 
for them, and then endeavor to encourage you by 
telling you how easily it was done, that they are in 
safety and that their happy home is in full view, and 
then beg you to allow him to place you safely among 
them. And then you say : " Oh, that I were with 
you ; oh, that I were out of this horrible place," 
and yet you say, ''I cannot trust him." Dear, 
doubting one, accept the sympathy of one who 
understands your case, but at the same time look at 
yourself and see how foolish you are. And then 
suppose that all these friends are at last forced to 



137 

leave without you, and this wonderful being retires 
from view^, and you are left to pass the stormy night in 
this, your most deplorable condition, with no prospect 
of better but everything growing worse ; and after 
passing a night of such wretchedness, without the 
least appearance of help from any other source, this 
person, whose best offers and promises you refused 
the day before, comes even with outstretched arms, 
and exhorts you to put j^our trust in him, and 
re-assures you that he will land you in safety, as he 
did your companions the day before, and even 
approaches nearer and in a more earnest tone 
assures you of his desire to secure your happiness, 
and tells you that there is no other that can do for 
you that ^vhich to secure your safety must be done, 
and at the same time you fully realize the fact, but, 
nevertheless, say : " I wish I could, but I can't trust 
you." My dear, doubting one, surely you can see 
how utterly inconsistent your course, under such 
circumstances must be ; yet this is your condition. 
These are your actions, this is the reality of your 
case. And can you not, will you not, forego all this 
inconsistency ? Yes, say that you do, and at once 
fall into the arms of this mighty succorer and be 
landed safely among your friends, w^here this your 
Saviour most gloriously will be the chief. 
6* 



A Sketch Concerning Doubts After Conversion. 

There is a class in the church who are so prone to 
doubt, and who depend so much upon feeling, that 
they are scarcely willing to trust that which they 
see, hear or themselves realize, and at times even 
doubt their own conversion. But if these would 
make as good use of their reason as they do of their 
feelings, yet disregard neither, they would find 
themselves much less troubled with doubts and 
more firmly established in the faith. For unless 
reason rules, feeling may lead astray, and as reason 
and truth are always in harmonj^, it would be well 
for such and all others who are annoyed with doubts, 
while pursuing a course of conduct which, in the 
light of the Gospel, recommends itself to their own 
consciences, to carefully consider that as a man 
knows that the weather is warm because the sun 
shines hot, and he is scorched with the heat, so he 
knows that the weather is cold because the heat is 
absent and the cold is present ; and that this is the 
way he knows there has been a change in the weather. 
And he would think one very foolish to tell him 
there was no change under such opposite circum- 
stances, much less for him to say so himself. Hence 
this is one way that we may know that we are con- 
verted to God. For when we realize that we are at 



139 

enmity against God, and that we are lovers of and 
rejoice in doing that which His law condemns, we 
know that we are sinners just as we know that the 
day is hot and sultry. But when w^e realize that 
these passions or feelings have been removed, and 
that they have been supplanted by those which are 
directly opposite as love to God and His children 
and a peculiar relish for Divine knowledge and holy 
things, we know that there has been a change just 
as we know that the day is cool and pleasant, instead 
of hot and sultry. And this knowledge is a knowl- 
edge of conversion, for as such work is the work of 
the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit must be present 
to do its work. 



Communion. 

"- The Jews, therefore strove among themselves, 
saying, how can this man give us His flesh to eat ? 
Then Jesus said unto them, Verilj^, verily, I say 
unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, 
and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso 
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal 
life ; and I will raise him up at the last day. For 
my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink 
indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh 
my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him." — John, 
VI cL, 52 to 56 V. 

Here the question of the Jews was of exactly the 
same nature as w^as that of Nicodemus. The Jews 
said, " How^ can this man give us His flesh to eat ?" 
Mcodemus said, " How can these things be ; can a 
man enter the second time into his mother's womb, 
and be born ?" Here the two questions are exactly 
parallel with each other, and the answer of Christ 
is in exact accordance with the nature of the case, 
and in the same sense in the one case as it is in the 
other, so that if He meant that men were to eat His 
flesh and drink His blood literally. He meant that a 
man must enter a second time into his mother's 
womb, that he might be born again. But when 
Jesus knew that His disciples murmured at it, then 



141 

He explained it, saying : " It is the Spirit that quick- 
eneth; the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that 
I spake unto you, they are Spirit and they are Life." 
So that iucismuch as it had a spiritual signification, 
to understand or receive it in a literal sense it would 
profit them nothing. And as the just are to live by 
fiiith, so they are to partake of His humanity through 
faith, and so live by Him. Hence there was to be 
a literal method of manifesting this partaking of His 
body and blood through faith, the conforming to 
which showed the faith and the necessity of faith in 
His humanity, as well as in His Divinity, and that His 
being a man w^as as necessary for our salvation as 
His being God was necessary, and that the way was 
as essential as the life. For it is just as necessary 
for us to partake of His humanity, through faith, as 
it is for us to receive His Divinity or Divine spirit, 
through faith, the difference being that Christ 
Divinely or spiritually is everywhere present with 
His saints, and so dwells in them in reality. But 
Christ, as humanity or man, is at the right hand of 
God, the Father, and as a man He is man and man 
only, the difference in Him now and when He was 
on earth, being that now His body is an immortal 
instead of a mortal body, and His body having been 
raised a spiritual body, and having become a glorious 
body, is just what, and nothing more than, all men 
will be who are His faithful followers. " For He 
will change our vile bodies that He may fashion them 
like unto His glorious body, according to the work- 



142 

ing wherewith He is able to subdue all things unto 
Himself." 

So this partaking of His humanity through faith 
is clearly seen from the nature of the case, as well 
as by the words of His own mouth. And because 
the language concerning the partaking of His 
humanity is plain, it does not make the signification 
any the more literal, but only adds strength to the 
figure. For, in the first place, the words were plain 
and positive, and these words that Avere plain and 
positive were not flesh and blood in its literal real- 
ity, but were spirit and life, and were just as figura- 
tive as the rock referred to by the Apostle, for, says 
he: '-They all drank of that spiritual rock, and 
that rock was Christ," and the literal significance of 
the one would be as consistent as the other. So 
that, according to the teachings that Christ meant, 
they were to eat His flesh and' drink His blood, lit- 
erally, we might as well say that the Apostle meant 
that they all drank or partook of a literal rock, or 
that thej^ drank Christ literally, instead of from that 
rock, which, as a figure, represented Him. And 
again, it would be just as consistent for them to 
say, when they eat that which they call the literal 
flesh and blood of Christ, that it is lion's flesh, or 
lamb's blood, as it would be to say that it is the 
literal flesh and blood of a man, for the Scripture 
calls Him " the Lion of the tribe of Juda," and 
" the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of 
the world." JBut, receiving these words as they 
come from the Lord Jesus, and as He has interpreted 



143 

them, that they are " Spirit, and that they are Life," 
we have the fullest assurance of strict compliance 
with that which these words enjoin, when we receive 
the bread and wine as a symbol of the broken body 
and shed blood of the Lord. For, at the last sup- 
per, (which we celebrate as the Lord's Supper, the 
celebration of which embraces the form or ordinance 
through which we partake of His humanity,) ''As 
they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, 
and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, 
' Take, eat; this is My body.' And He took the cup, 
and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 
' Drink ye all of it; For this is My blood of the New 
Testament, which is shed for many for the remission 
of sins.'" And then He tells them that He will not 
drink of this fruit of the vine which He has just 
offered them, but at the same time gives them 
plainly to understand that He will drink it new with 
them in His Father's kingdom. Thus they drank 
the wine as a symbol of His blood, not that they 
drank, or thought they drank, blood, for Christ 
gave it to them for wine, and told them that it was 
the fruit of the vine, and that He would not drink 
any then, but would drink it, or the same as that 
was, in His Father's kingdom. Hence, the disci- 
ples no more thought of this being the literal blood 
of Christ that they were drinking than they thought 
of Christ drinking His own blood when he got into 
His Father's kingdom, nor that they were drinking 
His blood any more than they would be when they 
would drink with Him of this same fruit of the vine 



144 

in His Father's kingdom. Moreover, the flesh and 
blood of the Lord is not God, but man, for God is 
neither flesh nor blood. So that in partaking of the 
bread and wine we do not partake of the Divinity 
of Christ, either literally or figuratively, for it has 
no reference to His Divinity whatever. The blood 
of Christ was shed upon the cross, and what was 
represented by the wine w^as His blood, for the blood 
was the life, and when His blood was shed He was 
dead. But God never died. I^o ; the idea is too 
absurd to be worthy of notice. So the body or 
flesh and blood of Christ that constitutes His 
humanity is all that this ordinance has any reference 
to w^hatever, except that it shows the Lord's death 
till He comes. Thus, when we partake of Christ's 
humanity it is through this ordinance ; but when 
we partake of His Divinity, it is by receiving the 
Holy Spirit, which constitutes " Christ in us, the 
hope of glory." " For if any man hath not the Spirit 
of Christ he is none of His." For it was not that 
Christ, as a man, was different from other men, but 
that He was exactly the same, and in that He is 
God it is not that He is different from God, but that 
He is exactly the same. Hence, as Christ taught 
His disciples that as God He would dwell in them, 
and that so they should partake of His Divine 
nature, so He taught them that by or through this 
ordinance they should partake of His humanity. 
Thus they partook of the bread and the wine which 
Christ told them was ''His body and shed blood," 
when as yet His body was not broken or His blood 



145 

shed, thus placing the fact that it was symbolical of 
His broken body and shed blood beyond the least 
shadow of doubt. Hence, by celebrating the Lord's 
Supper we partake of His humanity in accordance 
with His testimony concerning it. And the more 
simplicity there is about a ceremony the more clearly 
the truth is manifested by it; and all formalities not 
necessary, or contrary to the original, only tend to 
obscure it, and hence any deviation from the origi- 
nal form of administering the Lord's Supper can 
only have a tendency to obscure the great truth 
embodied in it. For, first these words came from 
the Lord Jesus Christ ; then He defined them, and 
then, with His own lips, and with His own hands. 
He performed that ceremony or service that 
embraced the partaking through faith of His own 
self And that which He gave them as a symbol of 
His broken body was bread, and there is nothing 
else that will symbolize it ; and that which He gave 
as a symbol of His shed blood was wine, and there 
is nothing else that can represent it. And, as in 
this case, so should it be in all others. The Gospel 
should be adhered to with all simplicity and firm- 
ness, and we should ever remember that there is no 
something else that is the Gospel. 

7 



Baptism. 

" In those days came John the Baptist, preaching 
in the wilderness of Judea, And saying, repent ye : 
for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. For this is 
He that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, 
the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare 
ye the w^ay of the Lord, make His paths straight. 
And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, 
and a leathern girdle about his loins ; and his meat 
was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him 
Jerusalem, and all Judea, and the region round about 
Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, con- 
fessing their sins. But when he saw many of the 
Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he 
said unto them, generation of vipers, who hath 
warned you to flee from the wrath to come ? Bring 
forth therefore fruits meet for repentance." — Matthew^ 
Illch. 

This was the first voice raised to declare the ordi- 
nance of baf)tism. And that ordinance is just as 
binding and just as eflacacious to-day as it was when 
John first made it manifest to Israel, and what this 
ordinance is, no other ordinance can be. And this 
is the baptism with which Jesus Christ was baptized, 
that He. might "fulfill all righteousness." Thus, if 
He had not been baptized with this baptism, He 



147 

would not have fulfilled all righteousness. Notwith- 
standing that many who came to the baptism of 
John were called vipers, Jesus showed plainly to 
the world that none were so rig-hteous as to foreo-o 
that baptism, by Himself being baptized. Nor did 
He make His case a specialty, but went out to the 
river Jordan, where all classes were assembled, and 
in like manner being baptized. Thus it is clear 
that Jesus was baptized with the baptism which 
John preached, and that it w^as necessary for Him 
to be thus baptized. Hence, this baptism is the bap- 
tism without which we cannot fulfill all righteous- 
ness ; and there is no other with which we can. For, 
though there be other baptisms, without this even 
Jesus Christ Himself could not have done His part. 
Therefore, if this baptism with w^hich Christ fulfilled 
all righteousness, or without which He could not 
have fulfilled it, is the right one, there is no other 
that is this same right one. This is the one which 
John preached and practiced, and it was not admin- 
istered in a church or a synagogue, neither in the 
streets of the city, nor in the houses of those who 
were baptized, but they all went out to the river, 
and were baptized of him in the river, confessing 
their sins. Thus is established the fact that John 
was the first Baptist, that he was in the river when 
he baptized, and that he baptized in the river ; and 
that the baptism with which he baptized was the 
baptism with which Jesus was baptized. 

And just here are two facts which require especial 
notice. The first is, '' all Jerusalem and all the 



148 

region round about Jordan,- ' for it must not be sup- 
posed that these phrases imply that all the inhabi- 
tants of those places went to be baptized, for they 
are greatly modified by the following, thus : " But 
when he saw many of the Pharisees and Saddueees 
come to his baptism,'' thus showing that it was only 
many of them and not all, and that the preceding 
phrases only embraced all those who took the warn- 
ing to " flee from the wrath to come," who were 
very many, and constituted a great flocking to 
John. The other is in regard to the times and 
length of time that John was baptizing. For John 
was not only a few days or weeks baptizing or 
fulfilling his mission, for he did not only baptize, 
but he first preached the baptism of repentance to 
the children of Israel ; that is, he preached that 
they should repent and be baptized, believing on 
Him who was to come after him. And when they 
had embraced this faith or doctrine, then, as con- 
verts to this doctrine, he baptized them. Thus 
John's baptizing was at such intervals as were 
proper and necessary, and always in the river. But 
his preaching was not confined to any particular 
location because he commenced in the wilderness, 
for he was manifested to all Israel, even to the 
chambers of Herod. Thus John had time and 
opportunity to baptize as many as were converted 
to his doctrine, and in whatever way his baptism 
required that it should be done. And this baptism 
which John preaclied, and this manner in which 
John baptized, is the baptism and the manner of 



149 

baptizing which Jesus accepted, sanctioned, preached 
and commanded to be preached and practiced, and 
He never accepted, sanctioned or commanded any 
other baptism over which man had control. More- 
over, this is the baptism in which God, the Father, 
not only acquiesced, but is that in which He showed 
His exceeding pleasure by manifesting His own 
presence at the scene of that wonderful event which 
neither time nor eternity ever witnessed but once, 
the baptism of the Son of God. For as soon as he 
had come up out of the water, lo, the Spirit of God 
descended, and lighting upon Him, remained. Thus 
John preached and practiced this baptism, Jesus 
received and sanctioned it, and God confirmed and 
sealed it with the visible presence and audible voice 
of His own self. So that to depart from this ordi- 
nance in form is to depart from it in fact, for with- 
out the form or formalities, we cannot have the 
figure ; and as the formalities constitute the figure, 
this figure cannot be constituted by any or of any 
other formalities, for any other formalities would 
just as positively constitute some other figure, as 
these would and do constitute this figure or baptism 
of John. Hence the diflference between baptizing 
and sprinkling, the one being the truth or the true 
baptism, and the other simply a mockery; the one pro- 
ceeding from God and constituting in part the foun- 
dation of Christianity, wlnle the other has no exist- 
ence prior to the partial apostasy, and w^as a substitute 
for baptism, which was well calculated to harmonize 
with the many heathenish doctrines with which the 



150 

apostates supplanted many of the vital parts of 
Christianity. And now, as baptism is one of the 
means by which Christ became perfect, and inas- 
much as we are not only permitted but commanded 
to use the same means, it is evident that w^e cannot 
become perfect without it. As the baptism without 
which we cannot fulfill all righteousness, is the bap- 
tism which John preached, that baptism, and that 
only, is the one which will accomplish the end ; and 
as the form or formalities constitute the figure or 
baptism, w^hen we conform to or go through the 
form or formalities which constitute the figure, then 
we have the baptism; but if the form or formalities 
be different from this, then it is not this baptism 
but that something else which those formalities consti- 
tute. And, as concerning the baptizing by John 
and baptizing by the Apostles, the only difterence 
between them was that John baptized them on the 
confession of their sins and faith in Christ as the 
coming one, and the disciples baptized them with 
the same baptism on confession of their faith in 
Christ as the Messiah who had come, as shown in 
the XlXth chapter of Acts, 1st to 5th verses : ''And 
it came to pass, that while ApoUos was at Corinth, 
Paul having passed through the upper coasts, came 
to Ephesus ; and finding certain disciples. He said 
unto them, have ye received the Holy Ghost since 
ye believed ? And they said unto him, We have not 
so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. 
And he said unto them, unto what then were ye bap- 
tized ? and they said, unto John's baptism; Then said 



151 

Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of 
repentance, saying unto the people, that they 
should believe on Him which should come after 
him, that is, on Jesus Christ. AVhen they heard 
this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord 
Jesus." Thus they were baptized in the name of 
Jesus Christ, but with the same baptism. In the 
one case they received the baptism of repentance or 
were baptized upon the confession of their sins ; in 
the other they had repented of their sins, and were 
baptized on confession of their faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, to whom the baptism or teaching of 
John so unerringly directed them. Thus they, as 
ApoUos, were made more thoroughly acquainted 
with the doctrine of Christ, not that they were in 
the wrong way, but after they had learned Christ 
from Paul they were further on in this same one 
right way or path, which John had made straight, 
to Christ. For '' Apollos was instructed in the way 
of the Lord and was fervent in spirit, and taught 
diligently the things of the Lord," without knowing 
anything more about Him than what John had 
taught him. Thus the fact that John baptized, that 
his baptism was the only true baptism ; that he was 
in the river when he baptized; that they went out 
from the cities and surroundings to him, and that 
he baptized them in . the river, being so clearly 
shown by the Scriptures that none can innocently 
deny it, the only question remaining to be settled is, 
how did he baptize them ? which question is answered 
by the Scriptures, just as definitely as though they 



152 

had said he placed them under the water and 
raised them up again. For Paul, in Romans, VI 
and 4th, tells us that we are " buried with Him by 
baptism," that is, by being baptized. Thus we see 
that as John buried the Lord Jesus Christ in the 
river, so w^ere all these, who in the foregoing were 
addressed, buried with Him, as He was, in baptism. 
For there is but one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and 
this one baptism is that baptism in which the Lord and 
His followers were buried, the one as or with the other ; 
and thus, being buried with Him in baptism consti- 
tutes 'Hhe figure whereunto even baptism doth now 
save us." And Jesus did not only receive ^nd teach 
the same baptism that John had taught, but, while 
John was still living, and teaching, and baptizing, 
Jesus made and His disciples baptized more disciples 
than John, each at the same time acquiescing in and 
forwarding the work of the other. Thus it is clearly 
seen that the baptism of John was the baptism of 
Jesus, and that as John immersed in the river, so 
did Jesus or His disciples the same. Again, when 
on the daj' of Pentecost the pov/er of God was 
manifested before that multitude which represented 
every nation under heaven, and Peter had explained 
to them the nature of that wonderful manifestation, 
and had convinced the Jews of their guilt in crucify- 
ing the Lord Jesus, and they had been constrained 
to cry out : " Men and brethren, what shall we do ?" 
Peter said unto them, " Repent and be baptized, 
every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive 



153 

the gift of the Holy Ghost" " Then they that gladly 
received His word were baptized, and the same day 
were added unto them about three thousand souls." 
Here we have the peculiar manner of speaking which 
characterized those times, that is of describing one 
event as transpiring before another certain event, 
when in reality it transpired after. For here, accord- 
ing to our mode of speaking, there are described as 
being baptized about three thousand persons in half 
a da}^, yet, when compared with other accounts, and 
the same mode of description, it wdll be seen that it 
is not likely that any of them were baptized upon 
that day, but the fact that they were added unto 
them that day is indisputable, for no matter when 
they were baptized, it was upon that day that they 
were added unto them, for it was there and then that 
they believed and received their doctrine. But to 
make it positive that they were baptized the same 
day, it would be necessary for it to read thus : Then 
they that gladly received His word w^ere baptized 
the same day, and there were added unto them 
about three thousand souls. And though the Holy 
Ghost was promised to those who would repent and 
be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, it does not 
follow that they could not be added unto them prior 
to being baptized, as is plainly showm in the case of 
Cornelius and those who were with him. For after 
Peter had entered the house of Cornelius, and had 
taught them the forgiveness of sins through faith in 
the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, w^hen he had tes- 
tified to the fact that God had raised Him from the 



154 

dead, that himself and others had eaten and drank 
with Him after He arose from the dead, and that 
this Jesus who had lived and died and risen again 
for them was to be the judge of quick and dead, 
" While Peter yet spake these words," or continued 
to speak, " the Holy Ghost fell on all of them that 
heard the Word." Thus Cornelius, and all that 
were with him, a numerous company, were added 
to the church in the presence of the inspired Peter, 
and all that were with him, by being sealed with the 
Holy Ghost, and manifesting its power and fruit 
before them, and all this without being or having 
an opportunity of being baptized, and perhaps with- 
out even knowing that they were to be baptized. 
Thus it is plain that if these could receive the Holy 
Ghost, and be added to the church, and then be 
commanded to be baptized, those who received the 
word upon the day of Pentecost were added to the 
church upon that day, though they were not bap- 
tized until the next or some other day. For Cor- 
nelius and his company received the Holy Ghost, 
spake with tongues, and magnified God, and then, 
after being added to the church, they were com- 
manded to be baptized. But if Cornelius had asked 
of Peter the terms of salvation, his answer to him 
would have been the same as to those upon the day 
of Pentecost, and the testimony concerning them 
would have been proportionately similar. Thus, no 
matter how many, or how few, to be baptized, there 
is but one baptism. For neither John, Christ nor 
Peter ever taught or commanded but one ; and as 



155 

in all other cases, so in this of Cornelius, they plainly 
showed what kind of baptism this was. For after 
Peter had heard them speak with tongues and mag- 
nify God, he said: ''Can any man forbid water, that 
these should be baptized, which have received the 
Holy Ghost as well as we ?" And who could con- 
strue such an expression as this to imply that they 
were to be sprinkled with a few drops of water. 
For had baptism meant such a process as this, who 
would suppose that there was not a pitcher of water 
in such a house as that wherewith he might have 
sprinkled them all ? No, the expression is equiva- 
lent to telling them to go to the river, as Christ 
went, and be baptized as He was baptized. Again, 
after Paul was converted he was told to "Arise and 
be baptized and wash away his sins, calling upon 
the name of the Lord," and whether this washing 
away of sins is a fact or a figure, it is nevertheless a 
washing, a complete work that requires much water : 
and hence Paul says to the Romans, VI and 3d : 
''Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized 
into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death ? 
Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into 
death : that like as Christ was risen up from the 
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also 
should walk in newness of life. For if we have 
been planted together in 'the likeness of His death, 
we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." 
Thus we see that if we have been baptized at all, we 
have been baptized into His death with that bap- 
tism wherewith we have been buried, for we have 



156 

been baptized into His death by being buried with 
Him ; not with Him in the grave, but with Him in 
baptism. Hence it is as plain and as easy to be 
understood that those who are baptized with the bap- 
tism which Christ was baptized with, are immersed 
— buried under the surface of the water — as it is to 
understand that a friend was put under the surface 
of the ground when we are told that he was buried 
with his oldest brother. Therefore, how audacious 
the act of coming into the presence of God with 
such a mockery as sprinkling, and teaching it as the 
reality of baptism. Not once does the thought seem 
to have been entertained by the writers of the Scrip- 
tures, or those to whom they were written, of con- 
struing baptism, or the manner of baptizing, to be 
anything other than immersion; nor does there 
occur within the lids of the New Testament a single 
sentence to justify the act of sprinkling as even a 
substitute for baptism, under any circumstances 
whatever, much less to make it baptism. Again, 
when Philip had expounded the Scriptures to the 
Ethiopian eunuch (whose case the Lord had made a 
special one), and had preached unto him Jesus, 
''As they went on the way, they came unto a cer- 
tain water : and the eunuch said. See, here is water; 
what doeth hinder me to be baptized?" Thus 
we see, that while preaching to him Jesus, Philip 
preached to him baptism, or else he would not have 
desired to be baptized. "And Philip said, ' If thou 
believest with all thine heart thou mayest.' And 
he answered and said, ' I believe that Jesus Christ 



157 

is the Son of God.' And he commanded the chariot 
to stand still; and they went down both into the 
water, both Philip and the eunuch ; and he baptized 
him. And when they came up out of the water, 
the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the 
eunuch saw him no more : and he went on his way 
rejoicing." Hence, this case is the same as that of 
Cornelius, for if Philip had wanted to sprinkle the 
eunuch, the eunuch would have commanded his 
servant to bring a vessel of water for that purpose. 
And considering the dignity of the eunuch, and the 
ease with which the ceremony could have been per- 
formed, it is doubtful as to whether either would 
have got out of the chariot. And it is evident that 
if Philip had taught the eunuch that sprinkling was 
baptism, he would have thought him beside himself 
to have asked him to wade into the river in order 
to have a few drops of water sprinkled upon him. 
But such was not the case. The place was adapted 
to the necessity, as Philip had previously taught the 
eunuch. Hence, when the eunuch saw the river or 
body of water, he knew that in it he could be 
buried, and that that would constitute the baptism 
which Philip had taught him. So this inspired 
Philip, and this previously dark-minded heathen, 
without ever thinking of such a thing as sprinkling, 
went down into the water, both of them, and Philip 
baptized him, and, thus buried with Christ in bap- 
tism, he came up out of the water, and went on his 
way rejoicing; and how any one acquainted with 



158 

Scripture can go on his way rejoicing in a way so 
contrary to this, is mysterious indeed, and cannot 
debar the conclusion that sprinkling is apostasy, 
and that instead of its being a part of Christianity, 
it is only a mockery of the same. 



The Soul.^ 

The fact that there is a close connection between 
the soul and the spirit is so obvious, from every- 
thing connected with the case, that it is not even to 
be supposed that it would be disputed. For the 
Word teaches that this union is as close as the joints 
and marrow, or the thoughts and intents of the 
heart. Yet it teaches that the soul and spirit are 
two, and as different as the joint is different from 
the marrow, or that the thought of the heart is dif- 
ferent from the intent, and needs but the plain 
language of Scripture to make its certainty unques- 
tionable. For, says the Apostle : " The Word of 
God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any 
two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing 
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and 
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and 
intents of the heart." Thus, notwithstanding that 
men call soul spirit, and spirit soul, and say that 
both are one, the Word of God divides them asun- 
der and shows that they are two, and tells us the 
difference between them. And inasmuch as the 
term soul occurs so frequently, and, as might be said 



* Note. — While perusing this, the reader should carefully 
attend to that which his Bible teaches, instead of that which 
he has learned from the pulpit or any particular creed. 



160 

under such peculiar circumstances, or in connection 
with such circumstances as to render its significance 
very difficult, the first fact that should be under- 
stood, and which should be kept constantly in view 
in determining its meaning as made use of in the 
various parts of Scripture, is, that no matter how it 
is used, or to what being, class, or part of a class it 
may be applied, that being or class of beings to 
which the term soul is applied must constitute that 
which the term soul or souls represents, even if that 
is God's own self. And, with this fact in view, it 
will be easily seen that the difficulty in determining 
the meaning of the term soul in all its applications, 
exists in the erroneous teachings of man concerning 
the nature of and the future state of man, instead of 
any Scriptural mystery wdiatever. For the soul is 
not a distinct entity from the being man in any 
respect whatever, for the being man is embraced in 
the term soul. For the body, the physical organ- 
ism, was the man ; tlien this man, through the oper- 
ation of God's breatliing into his nostrils the breath 
of life, became a living soul; then this man was not 
what he was before, an inanimate being. But this 
heretofore inanimate being became and was a living 
soul ; so that a soul is what he was ; not that a soul 
was put in him, but, the breath of life being put 
into him, a soul is what he became; so certainly a 
living soul is what he was, it could not be that he 
was anything else. And as the nature of things in 
the present life and that which is to come, as taught 
in the Holy Scriptures, is so vastly difierent from 



161 

most of the teachings of modern times, so it will be 
seen that the nature of death is also vastly different. 
For, notwithstanding that death is a result of sin, 
God will not allow it to be ultimately triumphant; 
neither has He allowed it to triumph, except as 
especially confined to the man. "For God is not 
the God of the dead, but the living; for all live 
unto Him." He is the God of Abraham, the God 
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, yet He " is not the 
God of the dead, but' of the living; for all live unto 
Him." When God pronounced upon man the sen- 
tence that he should die. He also determined in con- 
nection with that sentence, or had determined prior 
to his existence, that his death or being dead should 
be but for a time. And when man dies, he is dead 
so far as relates to himself and to all around him, 
and, thus dead, the sentence is executed. But with 
respect to his being dead to his Creator, that seems 
to bear an impossibility upon its face, for, in the 
first place, God made man, and made him of a par- 
ticular material which Himself had made; and, 
when man was made of that particular material, 
then God breathed into that man's nostrils the 
breath of life, and he became a living soul. Then, 
w^ien the breath of life was separated from him, he 
was dead, but the breath of life was the same, and 
the material of which he was made was the same ; 
so the breath of life was with God, and the dust was 
the same dust ; and the workmanship that was dis- 
solved was God's own work. So that, notwithstand- 
ing the sentence of death was executed upon man, 
7* 



162 

man was not dead to his Creator. " For the hour is 
coming in the which all that are in their graves 
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and come 
forth." That is, all that are dead shall hear His 
voice and come forth. Hence man, upon whom 
the sentence of death was executed, who is dead 
unto himself and dead to all around him, unknown 
to himself, devoid of all animation, can hear the 
voice of Him to whom the Eternal has consigned 
his destiny, and hear it so distinctly that he will 
come forth. Hence, how plain, how very plain, is 
this fact that man is not dead to his Creator ; for, if 
it were so that a father could call to his son, or a 
son to a father, that was laid in the grave, and he 
was to come forth alive, it would be folly to call him 
dead — if death represented the same idea that it 
does now. Therefore, it is evident that man lives 
unto his Creator, for he will hear the voice of the 
Son of God and come forth, not from that celestial 
clime that exists in the imagination of those whose 
ideas better fit them to teach the history of the gods 
and goddesses than the realities of the Scriptures, 
but from the grave, for it is those who are in their 
graves that are to hear His voice and come forth. 
Hence, God is not the God of the dead, but of the 
living, for all live unto Him. Again, as regards the 
creation of man, the breath of life is that which God 
breathed into his nostrils, and through this was 
brought about his animation, or through or by it he 
became an animate instead of an inanimate beinsr. 
So that the difference between man and soul is, that 



163 

the man is the being that was made of the dust of 
the ground, and the soul is the being which the man 
became when God breathed into his nostrils the 
breath of life. Hence, man is the organism, inanimate^ 
and soul is the same organism animate. Hence, it is 
that wherever, whenever, or in whatever connection 
it may appear, that soul means the living man and 
all that man is, whether in this world or that which 
is to come, or wherever it may be. And now% that 
inasmuch as to accumulate all the times, ways and 
subjects that are connected with the term soul, or to 
which it relates, would be altogether unnecessary 
and more calculated to weary than instruct, to select 
from all these a sufficient number of examples to 
show its use and manner of use in the different ages 
of the world, together with the most difiicult ones, 
or those which w^ould be considered the most diffi- 
cult, it seems would be the most agreeable and 
instructive. Thus, the first use that was made of 
the term was to declare that when God breathed 
into man's nostrils the breath of life, that man 
became a living souL Then, when in Exodus, chap- 
ter XXX, 11th, 12th and 13th verses, it is made use 
of, it shows that soul means self Thus : " And the 
Lord spake unto Moses, saying , When thou takest 
the sum of the children of Israel after their num- 
ber, then shall they give every man a ransom for his 
soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them; 
that there be no plague among them, w^hen thou 
numberest them.'' That is, that each should give a 
ransom for himself that w^as numbered, so that, 



164 

being ransomed, there would be no plague among 
these souls that were numbered. A half-shekel 
was what they were to give. The rich should not 
give more, and the poor should not give less, than 
half a shekel, when they gave an offering unto the 
Lord to make an atonement for their souls. That 
is, for themselves, for each was under the necessity 
of making an offering for himself. Again, in Levit- 
icus, XXVIth chapter, 15tli verse : " And if ye shall 
despise My statutes, or if your souls abhor My judg- 
ments, so that you will not do My all commandments, 
but that ye break My covenant ; I also will do this 
unto you;" and so on. Li this, the threat is against 
them if they shall despise His statutes, or if their 
souls abhor His judgments; in the 43d verse it is 
^'because they despised My judgments, their soul 
abhorred My statutes." So that ye and they are rep- 
resented as doing, and soul is represented as doing 
the same thing, so that in the repetition there is no 
discrimination between ?/e, they and souL For, if 
they despised His statutes, and soul abhorred His 
judgments, who was it that was to be punished? 
And if they despised His judgments, and their souls 
abhorred His statutes, who is it that was pun- 
ished ? For soul did what they did, and they did the 
same things that soul did. The question is easily 
answered, for it teaches nothing other than that the 
soul means self. I Sanmel, XVHIth chapter, 1st 
verse : "And it came to pass, when he had made an 
end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan 
was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan 



165 

loved him as his own soul." That is, Jonathan's 
affections were centered upon David, and he loved 
him as he loved his own self. The matter rested 
between Jonathan's own self and David's own self, 
and it was that one loved the other. And it must 
be remembered that as man became a living soul, 
and a soul is what he is, that phraseology must in 
its sense bend to the fact, and not the fact bend to 
the phraseology. Job, XVIth chapter, 4th verse : 
'' I also could speak as ye do : if your soul were in 
my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, 
and shake mine head at you." That is, if it were 
yourself instead of myself, or if you were in my 
place or situated as I am, I could do as you are 
doing. XlXth Psalm, 7th verse : " The law of the ' 
Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony 
of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." Here 
the simple that were made wise are part of those 
souls who w^ere converted. And the Lord said unto 
Peter : " When thou art converted, strengthen the 
brethren." So that thou, Peter's self, was converted, 
and soul is represented as being converted ; so that 
when Jesus addressed Peter, if He had said : When 
thy soul is converted, strengthen the brethren. He 
would surely have meant when thou thyself art con- 
verted. XXn Psalm, 29th verse : " None can keep 
alive his own soul." That is, none can keep alive 
his own self, or none can keep himself alive. And 
how foreign to common sense it would be to say 
that none could keep alive his own soul, if the case 
with it were as is taught in modern times, that a 



166 

soul cannot die. XXVth Psalm, 13tli verse : "His 
soul shall dwell at ease, and his seed shall inherit 
the earth." That is, himself shall dwell at ease. 
" His seed shall inherit the earth." That is, the 
seed of that soul that dwells at ease, shall inherit 
the earth. How plain it is that soul and self are 
identical. XXXIVth Psalm, 2d verse : " My soul 
shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall 
live thereof, and be glad." That is, himself would 
make his boast in the Lord, and when the humble 
or righteous heard that a soul of such dignity as 
David boasted in the Lord, they would be glad. 
XLIXth Psalm, 15th verse : " But God will redeem 
my soul from the power of the grave: for He shall 
receive me." That is, He would bring him forth at 
the resurrection, and then receive him ; and thus 
David would be satisfied, having awakened with his 
likeness. CVHth Psalm, 9th verse : '' For He satis- 
fieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul 
with goodness." The longing soul is the person 
who longs, and the hungry soul is the person who 
is in want, and who is the recipient of God's good- 
ness ; and what folly to deny that soul means self^ 
when such facts as these are presented before us. 
Xth Pro v., 3d verse : " The Lord will not suffer 
the soul of the righteous to perish, but He casteth 
away the substance of the wicked." He will not 
sutler the righteous soul to famish: but if the right- 
eous were treated as the wicked, then these righteous 
persons or souls would famish for want of that sub- 
stance which was cast away. XHIth Prov., 25th verse : 



167 

" The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul : 
but the belly of the wicked shall want/' That is, 
the righteous eateth to the satisfying of Him- 
self, or to the satisfying of his appetite, but the 
wicked were not to have the wherewith to satisfy 
their appetites. Jeremiah, XXXIst chapter, 12th to 
14th verses : " Therefore they shall come and sing in 
the height of Zion, and shall flow^ together to the 
goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and 
for oil, and for the young of the flock, and of the 
herd, and their soul shall be as a watered garden ; and 
they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall 
the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and 
old together : for I will turn their mourning into 
joy, and wdll comfort them, and make them rejoice 
from their sorrow. And I will satiate the souls of 
the priests with fatness, and My people shall be sat- 
isfied with My goodness, saith the Lord." Their 
souls should be as a Avatered garden : that is, they 
themselves should be refreshed and invigorated, so 
that they should sorrow no more ; for their condi- 
tion would be so changed that the virgin would 
rejoice and dance in company with the young and 
old together, for their mourning was to be turned 
into joy, and they were to be made to rejoice from 
their sorrows. That is, they themselves, those souls, 
were to rejoice. " I will satiate the souls of the 
priests with fatness." That is. He would bestow 
more upon them, or place more in their hands than 
they could make use of, so that this people could 
not fail to be satisfied with His goodness; thus it 



168 

was the priests themselves that were satisfied, as 
confirmed by XXIst chapter and 25th verse : '' For I 
have satisfied the weary soul, and I have replen- 
ished every sorrowful soul/' How plainly is it to 
be seen that these writers knew that man became a 
living soul, and that a soul was what he was, and 
that they knew nothing of any other kind of a soul. 
Ezekiel, XlVth chapter, from 12th to 16th verses<: 
" The word of the Lord came again to me, saying : 
Son of man, when the land sinneth against Me by 
trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out Mine 
hand upon it, and will break the staff* of the bread 
thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off" 
man and beast from it. Though these three men, 
Noah, Daniel and Job, were in it, they shall deliver but 
their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord 
God. If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the 
land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no 
man may pass through because of the beasts: 
Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith 
the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor 
daughters ; they only shall be delivered, but the 
land shall be desolate." Here God declares that if 
Noah, Daniel and Job were in the land that " they 
should deliver but their own souls by their righteous- 
ness." And again. He says that they only should 
be delivered, thus showing plainly that their own 
souls meant their own selves, for it was they only 
that should be delivered. Ezekiel, XVHIth chap- 
ter, from 1st to 20th verses : '' And the word 
of the Lord came unto me again, saying, What 



169 

mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning 
the land of Israel, saying : The fathers have 
eaten the sour grapes, and the children's teeth are 
set on edge ? As I live, saith the Lord God, ye 
shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb 
in Israel. Behold all souls are mine ; as the soul of 
the father, so also the soul of the son is mine : the 
soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Quite different from 
being immortal.) And so, then, souls that are His are 
the souls who, if they sin, shall die. '' But if a man 
be just, and do that which is lawful and right (that 
is if one of these souls be just), and hath not eaten 
upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes 
to the idols of Israel, neither hath defiled his neigh- 
bor's wife, neither hath come near a menstruous 
woman. And hath not oppressed any, but hatli 
restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none 
by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and 
hath covered the naked w^ith a garment; He that 
hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken 
any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from 
iniquity, hath executed true judgment between man 
and man, Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept 
my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely 
live, saith the Lord God. (Yes, this person is a soul 
that shall not die). If he begat a son tliat is a robber, 
a shedder of blood, and that doeth the like to any 
one of these things, And that doeth not any of these 
duties, but even hath eaten upon the mountains, and 
defiled his neighbor's wife. Hath oppressed the poor 
and need}^, hath spoiled by violence, hath not restored 
8 



170 

the pledge, and hath lifted up his eyes to idols, hath 
committed abomination, Hath given forth upon 
usury, and hath taken increase ; shall he then live ? 
he shall not live ; he hath done all these abomina- 
tions ; He shall surely die ; his blood shall be upon 
him. (Yes, all souls are the Lord's, and the soul 
that acteth thus shall surely die.) Now, lo, if he 
begat a son, that seeth all his father's sins which he 
hath done, and considered, and doeth not such like. 
That hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither 
hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of 
Israel, hath not defiled his neighbor's wife, Neither 
hath oppressed any, hath not withholden the pledge, 
neither hath spoiled by violence, but hath given his 
bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked 
with a garment, That hath taken oft* his hand from 
the poor, that hath not received usury nor increase, 
hath executed my judgments, hath walked in my 
statutes, he shall not die for the iniquity of his 
father, he shall surely live. As for his father, 
because he cruelly oppressed, spoiled his brother by 
violence, and did that which is not good among his 
people, lo, even he shall die for his iniquity. Yet, 
ye say, why doth not the son bear the iniquity of 
the father? When the son hath done that which is 
lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and 
hath done them, he shall surely live. The soul that 
sinneth it shall die^ the son shall not bear the iniquity 
of the father, neither shall the father bear the 
iniquity of the son : the righteousness of the right- 
eous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of 



171 

the wicked shall be upon him." Here the soul is 
pictured as being all that the man is, whether good 
or bad, and all souls are the Lord's, and all this 
people is represented under the head of souls. The 
soul that doeth righteousness, he shall surely live, 
and the soul that sinneth, he shall surely die. Here 
is the fact in its plain form, and the phraseology is 
such as cannot be mistaken, showing in the most 
comprehensive manner that soul means self, that 
the man's self is the soul, or that a living man is a 
soul, and that there is nothing more or less that is 
or even can be a soul ; so that it is impossible for a 
soul to exist without embracing all that man is, for 
these were souls and nothing more; and, hence, to 
be souls hereafter they can be nothing less. Matthew 
XVIth chapter, 26tli verse : " For what is a man 
profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose 
his own soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange 
for his soul ?" Lose his soul, lose his self; for w^ho 
is it that is lost, or what is it that is lost ? All is 
lost that is not saved, and there is nothing saved 
when the soul is lost, so all is lost, and that all is 
himself. Romans, XHIth chapter, 1st verse : " Let 
every soul be subject unto the higher powers." 
This is the fact presented more in accordance with 
modern phraseology, and shows in the plainest pos- 
sible manner that every soul meant every man. 
I Peter, Hid chapter, 20th verse : " Few, that is, 
eight souls, w^ere saved by water." Who is it that 
does not know who these eight souls were, and who 
could know who they were without knowing that 



172 

soul meant self? These souls were JSToali and liis 
family; and Noah being a soul, and his wife being 
a soul, and all his family being souls, it would be 
strange indeed if all their ojffspring were not souls, 
and then it w^ould be wonderfully strange if these 
souls were not their own selves. For it was Noah's 
own self that built the ark, and it was this soul, 
Noah, and the other seven souls that were saved in 
it. I Peter, IVth chapter, 19th verse : '' Where- 
fore, let them that sutler according to the will of 
God, commit the keeping of their souls to Him in 
well doing as unto a faithful Creator.'' That is, 
commit the keeping of their selves to Him, for it 
was in their doing that they were to commit their 
selves to Him. H Peter, Hd chapter, 14th verse : 
'' Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease 
from sin, beguiling unstable souls." If it could be 
made to appear that these souls did not belong to 
humanity, then it would be one step towards disprov- 
ing that soul meant t?ie living being, man, or rather 
that which the man became. But, contrarywise, it 
is so plain as to need no comment, but itself speak- 
eth and tells us that soul means self The revelation 
of John, the Divine. What is the revelation of John, 
the Divine ? There is no such a thing as the revela- 
tion of John, the Divine; the phrase is a hoax. 
There is '' the revelation of Jesus Christ which God 
gave unto Him to show unto His servants things 
which must shortly come to pass, and He sent and 
signified it by His angel unto His servant, John." 
So that, in the first place, it is the '' revelation of 



173 

Jesus Christ." Secondly, it is that which " God 
gave unto Him," for the purpose of showing unto 
His servants things which must shortlj^ come to pass, 
and He sent and signified, or made it known, by His 
angel unto His servant, John, '' who bare record of 
the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus 
Christ, and of all things that he saw." That is, he 
bare record that it is the revelation which God gave 
unto Jesus Christ. Then he bare record to the fact 
that he has the testimony of Jesus Christ, to the 
effect that it is the revelation that God gave unto 
Him ; and then he bare record to all that he saw. 
So that the difference between John and us, in 
respect to these things, is that they were pictured 
before his vision, and he wrote them for us to read. 
And when we read them we know just as much 
about them as he did, the difference being that he 
saw the picture and we have the picture described 
by him. He heard the words, and he tells us what 
he heard. In the first place, he tells us that he was 
in the " isle that is called Patmos, for the word of 
God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." That 
he ^'was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and heard 
behind him a great voice as of a trumpet, saying, 
I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and 
what thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the 
seven churches that are in Asia." This part of the 
revelation was concerning things that were, and is 
distinct from the rest of the revelation, being con- 
fined to the things that then were, and was received 
before that he was invited up to heaven. But it 



174 

must not be supposed that there is any such an idea 
presented as that John was in heaven, but he says, 
" I was in the spirit on the Lord's day." Not his 
own spirit, but the spirit of the Lord, and it was 
through the power of that spirit that his vision was 
carried to heaven, that he might see and understand 
these things, that he might communicate them to us, 
not as one who had heard or read of them, but that 
he might tell us that which he had seen and fully 
realized was and was to be. Thus God has not only 
told us of these things, but John, being of our 
brethren, He has showed them unto us. Yet John 
did not see any realitj' of things whatever. There 
was nothing that passed before his vision that was 
reality; it was only a picture of that Avhich was 
thereafter to be realized, and he did not see any 
reality of souls under the altar, any more than he 
saw the sun become black as sackcloth of hair, and 
the moon become as blood, which did not come to 
pass for more than seventeen hundred years after. 
Nor did he see them any more than he saw the 
heavens depart as a scroll when it is rolled together, 
or that the great day of God's wrath had come. All 
that was pictured before him was that which was to 
be thereafter. There was no present reality about 
it whatever. So that when he says he saw under 
the altar the souls of them that were slain for 
the word of God and for the testimony which they 
held, the case with them was the same as with the 
rest that he saw. So that when he says that he 
saw these souls under the altar he means that he 



175 

saw them just as he saw the sun become black as 
sackcloth of hair and the moon become as blood, 
which he never saw at all. So that this that is 
shown under the fifth seal is a figure pointing to the 
reality of things, as represented in the XXth chapter, 
when he saw the souls of them (or those souls as it 
is evident that the original was) that were beheaded 
for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, 
and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his 
his image, neither had received his mark upon their 
foreheads or in their hands, which souls lived and 
reigned a thousand years. That is, first he saw these 
souls, then he saw who they were, that they were 
those persons who had been beheaded, and then 
were resurrected, and then he saw that they lived 
and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Then 
he says that he saw that the rest of the dead lived 
not again until the thousand years were finished. 
So that the souls that he saw then were the resur- 
rected righteous that were not of that number which 
did not live, but were still dead, so that the resur- 
rected righteous are here represented by the term 
soul. And before a soul can exist in a future state, 
that soul must first be resurrected, for it is the 
animate and not the inanimate being that is the 
soul. And these persons whom John saw were the 
identical beings w^ho were slain for the word of God 
and for the testimony which they held. That is, 
those souls that died, those souls that were resur- 
rected, they are the souls that lived and reigned 
with Christ a thousand years. So that, except with 



176 

respect to its glorification, whatever a soul is here 
that is exactly what it will be hereafter, for there is 
no soul except the being which the man became, 
and this being was nothing more or less than a soul. 
Hence, to be a soul, it is necessary to be all that 
living humanity constitutes. 



The Spirit of Man. 

When God breathed into man's nostrils the breath 
of life, he became a living soul. But though a per- 
fect man before God breathed into his nostrils the 
breath of life, he did not live. So that without the 
breath of life, he was an inanimate being; but after 
the breath of life had been breathed into him, then 
he was an animate or living being. Hence, when 
he was deprived of this breath of life, he again 
became an inanimate being. And the Word says 
that the body without the spirit is dead, so that of 
course the body with the spirit is alive, just as was 
the case with the damsel, for her spirit came again, 
and she lived; so that this inanimate damsel was 
made to live by causing her spirit to come again. 
And Adam was made or became an animate being 
by receiving the breath of life. Now, the damsel 
that had lived, but was dead, was restored to life by 
giving her back her spirit ; and if Adam, who had 
been deprived of the breath of life, had had that 
breath of life restored to him, then he would have 
lived, just as he did at the first, and just as the 
damsel did. So that as they were both inanimate, 
the one destitute of the breath of life, and the other 
destitute of her spirit, and the receiving of the 
breath of life caused the animation of one, and 



178 

the receiving of her spirit caused the animation of 
the other, the fact that the spirit of man is the 
breath of life is positively manifested. But it must 
not be supposed that the breath of life is simply the 
atmosphere, otherwise a pair of bellows might live ; 
but it is that cause of animation, that something 
without which we cannot exist, that something 
which returns to God who gave it: that is the 
breath of life or the spirit. So that, as the spirit 
returns to God, who gave it, and the breath of life 
is all that we know of as regards the creation of 
man that God gave unto him, it is evident that 
whatever the breath of life is, that is the spirit. 
And the word spirit, no matter when or how used, 
must have a distinct literal or a distinct figurative 
meaning, and the phraseology connected with the 
term must conform to the primitive fact, and not 
the original fact to the many modes in which it is 
used ; and therefore, as the spirit of man is a reality, 
the term in its literal sense only is applicable to it. 
And as the breath of life is the spirit, that spirit, it 
seems, must be the spirit of life ; and the spirit of 
life from God entered into the two witnesses, and 
they stood upon their feet, or lived, just as the dam- 
sel did when her spirit came again. So that it is 
evident that the breath of life, the spirit, and the 
spirit of life from God, are identical ; and thus the 
difference between man and soul exists in the pres- 
ence or absence of the spirit : in the absence of the 
spirit^ it is the inanimate man ; when the spirit is 
present^ it is the living soul. So then, inasmuch as 



179 

man is of the dust of the ground, and the soul is 
that which tlie man became when God breathed 
into him the breath of Ufe, and inasmuch as the 
breath of life, the spirit of life from God, and her 
spirit, are one and the same, the question is, what is 
the breath of life ? And the first thing to be 
remembered is, that it is not only the breath, but 
the breath of life, that animating quality that was 
adapted to the organic structure, man, and was that 
which God breathed into him ; that which did not 
constitute his existence, but that made animate the 
being that did exist. Hence, what folly to suppose 
that the spirit of man is a distinct entity, with all 
the personal appearance, the peculiar characteristics, 
and, in fact, all that the man is, except what they 
call the prison-house of this imaginary being which 
they call the spirit. To believe this because there 
are beings that are and were created spirits, comes 
no nearer the standard of common sense than to 
suppose that these beings which are and never were 
anything else but spirits, possess the peculiar ability 
to become, and will become, human beings. But, 
foregoing all this absurdity, we see that the man is 
the being, and that the spirit is the breath of life ; 
and that when this being, man, received the breath 
of life, he became a living soul ; and that when the 
breath of life is taken away, that that breath of life 
is what and all that the spirit is. It is not the man^ 
nor the soul^ but the animating power by which THE 
ONE BECOMES THE OTHER. Yet, still the 
question to be determined is, what is the breath of 



180 

life? And, in so doing, it is necessary for all to 
discriminate between the spirit of man and the spirit 
of God, and also between the spirit of God and the 
spirit of life from God, and again between the term 
spirit in its literal sense and when used figuratively. 
For the terms, a haughty spirit, a contrite spirit, are 
figurative, and represent that which the same char- 
acters or persons are noted for, and at the same time 
embraces both character and person of the beings 
thus represented, and in reality signifies a haughty 
person or a contrite person, with no particular refer- 
ence to spirit whatever. And the phrase " Be ye 
renewed in the spirit of your minds," shows to what 
extent this figure may be carried. ITence, it must 
be remembered that in determining what the spirit 
of man is, the literal significance of the term is all 
that is applicable to the case, as are the following : 
Ecclesiastes, Xllth chapter, 7th verse : '' Then shall 
the dust return to the earth as it was : and the spirit 
shall return unto God, who gave it." This presents 
the case in its simple reality, and shows that the 
organic structure dissolves and returns to the earth 
as it was, and that the spirit, the breath of life, 
returns to God, who gave it; and that, in conse- 
quence thereof, the soul is not in existence, for the 
soul was the being that the man became by receiving 
the breath of life, and, hence, when this departed 
and the organic structure which it animated returned 
to its dust, and the dust to the earth as it was, the 
soul could not be in existence until resurrected or 
re-created, when, having received the breath of life 



181 

or the eternal life, it would again be that living soul 
wliieli it was before. But the Psalmist, Vlth, 5th 
verse, continues this inspired strain, and plainly 
shows that the preceding and following were all that 
they knew^ about the nature of death. For says he : 
'^ In death there is no remembrance of Thee : in the 
grave who shall give Thee thanks?" That is, what 
man ? "Who can remember Thee in the grave ? 
Who can give Thee thanks from thence ? For my 
dust w'ill be as other dust, and my spirit wdll have 
returned to God who gave it, and until I awake in 
the mornino; of the resurrection I shall be no more. 
And in the CXLVIth chapter and 4th verse, still he 
continues : " His breath goeth forth ; he returneth 
to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." 
All this points w^ith unerring precision to the fact 
that w^hen the spirit returns to God w^lio gave it, 
that the being, the soul, ceases to exist, and that 
they are not, and that '' till the heavens be no more 
they shall not awake nor be raised out of their 
sleep." And it is thus that the righteous rest from 
their labors, for there is no reward until the resur- 
rection, as shown in the Vlth chapter of Eevelation. 
For these did rest, and it w^as said unto them that 
they should rest a little longer until the appointed 
time, as revealed in the XXth chapter. For it is 
the being which the man became, the soul, the self, 
that is to exist and be rewarded or punished, and 
not the breath of life. And as the first existence of 
man was brought about or wrought by the Almighty, 
so the second or re-existence will be the result of the 



182 

mighty power of God, by the same or a similar 
operation. And, therefore, when He calls forth the 
man from the dust and endows him with life, then 
he will have again become a living soul. And now 
the question is, is the breath of life the one and the 
same breath of life, as that of which the man was 
made was the one and the same one dust ? Now if, 
when God created Adam, He had made ten men, 
He would have breathed into the nostrils of the first 
the breath of life, and then He would have breathed 
into the nostrils of the second the same breath of 
life, and then He would have breathed into the 
others the same breath of life which He had 
breathed into the first two, so that they would have 
all received the one and the same breath of life 
which God breathed into Adam. Hence, it follows, 
that when the breath of life of these ten men 
returned to God, it would be the same one breath 
of life. Therefore, as the breath of life, the spirit, 
and the spirit of life from God, are all one and the 
same, the spirit of all men must be that one and the 
same spirit or breath of life; thus, this spirit, or 
spirit of life, or breath of life, is the spirit or breath 
of life of us all, just as that of which we are made 
is one and the same one dust. So that all are made 
of the same one dust, and the same one breath of 
life is the breath of life of us all. 



The Judgment and the Judge. 

" And I saw the dead, small and great, stand 
before God, and the books were opened." And 
what books were opened ? were they the Old 
and New Testaments, or the books in which the 
deeds of mankind were recorded ? The theory 
or notion that is so nearly or quite universal, that 
the books that were opened were those in which the 
deeds of mankind were recorded, when properly 
analyzed is found to be quite foreign to the reality 
of the case. For though, as was said, another book 
was opened, which was the book of life, the dead 
were judged out of those things which were written 
in the books aside from the book of life, according 
to their works. Not according to their works as 
written in the books, but out of the things which 
were written in the books, according to their works. 
Hence, there were at least three books ; that is, first 
the books were opened, which is positively more 
than one but seems to imply but two. And as the 
Bible is positively two books, and in reality but two, 
and as the word that Jesus spake was to judge them 
at the last day, and he also in whom the Jews 
trusted, even Moses, was to judge or accuse them, 
it is evident that the books that were opened were 
not the records of actions, but the Old and New 



184 

Testaments. And after this judgment, all those 
whose names were not written in the book of life 
were cast into the lake of fire. But this book is the 
Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation 
of the world, and therefore it must not be suj)posed 
that they were written in it from the foundation of 
the world, but written in the Book of Life of the 
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Thus 
it is that at the judgment the Word of God that now 
is and has been preached to the world, is that word 
which is to judge it, or by which it is to be judged 
at the last day. 

In determining the question of judgment it is 
necessary to have a clear understanding of those parts 
of Scripture which bear directly upon the final scene, 
in order that not only the nature of the judgment 
may be understood, but that the nature, character 
and person of the judge may also be fully comjDre- 
hended. For a knowledge of things as existing 
before Christ is a prerequisite to a proper under- 
standing of the nature and character of the judge 
and the reality of the judgment. And inasmuch as 
it hath suited the fancies of so many to endorse and 
promulgate the idea that the Ancient of Days became 
the son of a woman, it is necessary to understand 
the reality of the prophetic writing from which this 
delusion had its origin. For, though they say, can- 
not God do all things, are not all things possible 
unto Ilim, it does not follow that because God is 
omnipotent that we are to believe all the disgusting 
absurdity that monks, and priests, and college-bred 



185 

sophists see fit to teach, even if there were no 
Scriptures to prove the contrary, much less when 
God's Word presents the truth in all holy harmony, 
and perfectly consistent with Divine wisdom, and 
makes it so plain that the half wise can understand 
it if they will. In the seventh chapter of Daniel, 
commencing at the ninth verse, we read : " I beheld 
till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of 
Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and 
the hair of his head like pure wool : His throne was 
like the fiery fiame, and his wheels as burning fire. 
A fiery stream issued and came forth from before 
him : thousand thousands ministered unto him, and 
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him ; 
the judgment was set, and the books were opened. 
I beheld then, because of the voice of the great 
words which the horn spake, I beheld even till the 
beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to 
the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the 
beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet 
their lives were prolonged for a season and time. I 
saw in the night vision, and, behold, one like the Son 
of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came 
to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near 
before Him. And there was given Him dominion, 
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations 
and languages should serve Him : His dominion is 
an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, 
and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." 
Here the prophet presents before us, in the most 
comprehensible manner, the reality of that which 
8* 



186 

transpired after the resurrection and ascension of 
Jesus Christ. For it was a scene that was to trans- 
pire not upon earth, but in heaven. Hence, in the 
nineteenth chapter of Luke, eleventh and twelfth 
verses, we read : " And as they heard these things. 
He added and spake a parable, because He was nigh 
to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the 
kingdom of God should immediately appear. He 
said, therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far 
country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to 
return. And he called his ten servants, and deliv- 
ered unto them ten pounds, and said unto them, 
occupy till I come." Here Christ in reality told 
them that He was not to receive His kingdom then, 
but that a long journey intervened between that 
time and place, and the time and place of His receiv- 
ing it. And when He entered upon the reality of 
that parable and took His journey, He went to 
receive for Himself a kingdom and to return. And it 
was then that He, the one like the Son of man, or the 
Son of man, was seen by the host of heaven coming 
with the clouds that received Him out of the sight 
of the apostles at His ascension. And after His 
arrival in the heaven of heavens He was brought 
before the Ancient of Days, for here it was that He 
received from the Ancient of Days dominion and 
glory and a kingdom that all people, nations and lan- 
guages should serve Him, And from this, the time 
of His receiving this dominion and glory and king- 
dom, He is waiting or expiating till His enemies 
be made His footstool, when He will come again in 



187 

like manner as He went into heaven. For He was 
to receive for Himself a kingdom, and then return. Yea, 
just as the liost of heaven saw Him arrive there, so 
will the inhabitants of the earth behold Him when 
He shall return, except that as when He went He 
went to receive honor and glory and power ; when 
he returns to the earth He will have and display the 
glorious realities of that honor and glory and power 
that He received from the Ancient of Days, when 
He was brought before Him. And here is presented 
the two persons as plainly as language can picture 
them, the one like tlie Son of man, the other the 
Ancient of Days ; the one who was enthroned in the 
heaven, the other the one who was brought before 
Him ; the one He who received dominion and 
glory and a kingdom, and the other the one who 
bestow^ed these gifts ; the one the Father, the other 
the Son, a reality of two as much as Abraham and 
Isaac were two. And why was it that Daniel saw 
and described one like the Son of man, or one 
resembling the sons of men, coming with the clouds 
of heaven? Why is this such a notable fact that 
one like the Son of man came with the clouds of 
heaven, and was even brought before the Ancient 
of Days ? Surely, if the theories of the present day 
were correct, it would be nothing strange, or worth 
a prophet's telling about, for hundreds and thou- 
sands resembling the sons of men to arrive in 
heaven. But the reason is obvious ; such an event 
never transpired before ; one resembling the sons 
of men never arrived there before. He was a 



188 

stranger in heaven, for that was the far country to 
which He was to go, and the scene before the throne 
embraced the significance and displayed the reality 
not only of that which then transpired, but also of 
the wonderful events connected with His presence 
there. The first was the fact that far from that 
celestial region had transpired an event with which 
the scene before the throne was in perfect harmony, 
as a result of that event. And hence there was 
seen, not a God, that was the son of a goddess (of 
course there is none), but one resembling the sons 
of men, coming with the clouds of heaven. Now, 
if the mother of Jesus had been a goddess, Jesus 
would not have been man at all, there would not 
have been the least spark of humanity in Him; and 
just the same in regard to His Father, for Mary 
being His mother, if Joseph had been His father, 
there would not have been the least spark of Divin- 
ity in Him. But as Mary was His mother. He was 
man, and not God only ; and as He was begotten of 
God instead of being begotten of Joseph, He is 
God, and not man only, just as He is man and not 
God only. So that, just as He is man because He 
was born of the Virgin Mary, so He is God just 
because He was begotten of God. And God never 
assigned any other reason for His being His Son, 
and Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God or to 
be Divine for any other reason. Here we see that 
this being was the Son of man, not a resident of 
heaven, but that in His journey from His native 
distant clime in the cloudy chariot. He had just 



189 

arrived there and was conducted into the presence of 
the Eternal, and was no more that Eternal or Ancient 
of Days than Isaac was Abraham, but was just the 
beino: that God declared Him to be when He said : 
" Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten thee," 
and just what Christ claimed to be, the Son of God, 
because the Ancient of Days, or Jehovah, was His 
Father. Hence we see that the one who is ordained 
to be the judge of quick and dead is the Son of 
Mary, the Son of man, the Son of the Ancient of 
Days, or Jehovah. And we see that this judge is 
to be the monarch of creation, for all are to serve 
Him, whether peoples, nations or tongues ; there 
will not be even one, not even a tongue, that will 
not praise Him. Again, we see that He is not 
unacquainted with the nature of man and the 
realities of his case, for He is God and man, and 
thus omniscience combined with human sympathy. 
He is qualified to decide for God and man. His 
omniscience God understands exactly, and is satis- 
fied for Him to be the judge, or else He would not 
have made Him such. And we are assured of His 
sympathy with man in that He is even now our 
great High Priest, that can be touched with the 
feeling of our infirmities, and so He is qualified to 
be an impartial judge. And this is He whom the 
heavens hath received until the time of the restitu- 
tion of all things, for when He ascended on high the 
heavens received Him and must retain Him until 
that day which God has appointed in the which He 
will judge the world in righteousness, by this His 



190 

Son, whom He hath ordained to be the Judge; and 
hence the declaration, ^^ Behold He cometh with 
clouds," (just as He went,) and every eye shall see 
Him, and they that pierced Him, and all nations 
shall mourn because of Him (that is, the wicked of 
them). For He hath received of the Ancient of Days 
dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, the establish- 
ing of which is to embrace the sweeping away of 
all that is unholy, all that is unfitted to dwell in His 
kingdom. No w^onder that the nations are to mourn 
when they behold this august personage coming in 
the clouds of heaven to establish His kingdom. For 
all transgressors are to be rooted out of it, the 
wicked are to be destroyed from ofi* the face of the 
earth. Yea, "- the heavens, being on fire, shall be 
dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
heat ; the earth, also, and the w^orks that are therein 
shall be burned up.'' No wonder, then, that in the 
minds of the wicked there is a fearful looking for 
of judgment and fiery indignation that will devour 
all His adversaries. For, having completed His 
work as mediator, '' the Lord will descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Arch- 
angel, and with the trump of God. And the dead 
in Christ shall be raised," and together with His 
living followers the doors will be shut about them 
till His wrath be passed, till the wicked shall be 
consumed from oft* the face of the earth, till the 
heavens be dissolved and the earth shall have passed 
through its fiery ordeal, and is brought forth in all 
its Eden loveliness and fitted for their everlasting 



191 

abode, " then shall the righteous shine forth in 
the kingdom of their Father." Then will be 
established the dominion ; then will be realized 
the glory in that kingdom, which the one like 
the Son of man received from the Ancient of 
Days, when they l)rought Him near before Him. 
Before Herod the Great received his kingdom, he 
went to a far country, even to Rome, and appeared 
or was conducted before Caesar, and received the 
kingdom or dominion of Judah, and was made its 
king there before the universal monarch, then 
returned to Jerusalem, destroyed his enemies and 
reigned over his territory or kingdom, and displayed 
that power which he had received in the far country, 
when he was brought or conducted before the Caesar 
and senate ('f Rome. And Jesus Christ left Jeru- 
salem as literally as Herod did, and went to heaven 
as literally as Herod went to Rome, and appeared 
before the Ancient of Days as literally as Herod 
appeared before Ceesar, and received of the Ancient 
of Daj^s dominion and glory and a kingdom as liter- 
all}^ as Herod received dominion and a kingdom 
from the Roman power, and will return to the earth, 
destroy His enemies and take possession, as really as 
Herod returned from Rome and took possession. 



The Devil, or Satan and Hell. 

It is evident that in the notions of the world and 
the teachings of most ecclesiastics concerning the 
devil and hell, there are as great mistakes as there 
are in regard to many other subjects or characters 
that do not come within the bounds of our visual 
comprehension, and when the true nature of the 
case as revealed in the Scriptures is understood, it is 
plain to be seen that these errors concerning the 
character and operations of Satan, and the nature 
of hell, are productions of the great heresy concern- 
ing the future state. For as the church, after the 
apostasy, had a heaven for all its saints to enter at 
death, where they were ushered into the full reality 
of eternal felicity, so they prepared for the wicked 
a burning hell, where at death they were punished 
with everlasting torments. And thus, by this heret- 
ical process they frustrate th plans of the Almighty, 
and transformed the resurrection and judgment into 
what might in reality be called the scum of a farce. 
And this hell, or place of everlasting burning, they 
created a sort of kingdom for Satan, over which he 
had supreme control, and those called devils were 
his subordinates; and so they represent Satan in 
hell executing the decrees of the Almighty as his 
willing and obedient servant. And that here in 



193 

this burning hell, Satan and all the devils are 
continually delighting themselves in burning their 
victims and witnessing their agony, which is 
nothing more than executing and acquiescing 
in the pleasure of the Almighty. No wonder that 
the Apostle saw that damnable heresies were to 
be brought into the church. This is substantially 
the teachings of the Papal church concerning hell 
and the devil, and is just what the outside world 
understand concerning it, and is also the teachings 
of most the Protestant churches. This might do 
for the heathen, from whence it w^as derived, but, 
alas, what ideas for Christians to entertain. For 
they are as directly opposite to the teachings of 
Scripture as falsehood can be to fact. Hence, when 
we forego all these absurdities and accept the truth 
as revealed in the Scriptures, we see that the only 
hell of punishment is the lake of fire that was pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels, and that though 
the wicked are to be cast into it after the last resur- 
rection and the judgment, the devil has no more to 
do with the punishing of the wricked than they have 
to do with punishing him. And that instead of the 
devil being the superintendent and chief of hell, 
and the punisher of the wicked, that he never was 
in hell, and that he is just as much- afraid of it as a 
murderer would be ; yea, and much more, and has 
better reasons for being afraid of it. For he was a 
murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the 
truth, and for rebellion against God he was cast out 
of heaven into the earth, which has ever since been 
9 



194 

the field of his operations. Hence we read that he 
tempted Christ in the wilderness, not in hell, and 
Christ said that he (the devil) was the one who 
sowed the tares among the wheat, but not in hell. 
Again, we read that he is the one that sets snares 
for the unwary of mankind, and the Scriptures tell 
us that he goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking 
whom he may devour. He also contended with 
Michael, the Archangel, about the body of Moses, 
but not in hell. The devil was to cast some of 
Christ's followers into prison, but not in hell. All 
these are the operations of the devil, and all are 
confined to this earth, while his presence in that 
fiery kingdom over which he is represented as reign- 
ing is not once brought to view. He is represented 
as being busily engaged on the earth, which received 
him when he was cast out of heaven. But such a 
thing as his being in hell even for an hour is not so 
much as intimated. Hence we see that the opera- 
tions of the devil are always intermingling with the 
afiairs of mankind, and confined to this earth, where 
" he goeth about like a roaring lion seeking whom he 
may devour." But this devouring is quite difierent 
from what is generally imagined, for it is manifest that 
he does not, nor does not want to, devour every one 
he comes in contact with, or else he would not need 
to go about seeking. Yet " he goeth about as a roar- 
ing lion, seeking whom he may devour." Hence it 
is evident that he is not seeking those who are 
already his own, but those who are not. But while 
he goes about as a roaring lion, he does not go roar- 



195 

ing as a lion roareth; but as a lion, when he goeth 
about seeking for something to devour, uses all his 
energies in the most stealthy manner possible, so 
the devil does not roar as a lion, but as the lion has- 
tens unobserved to the scene of action, and uses all 
his powers to conceal his presence and deceive his 
victim until it is within his grasp, so the devil 
uses the craft of the roaring lion, conceals himself, 
and deceives his victim until it is within his power. 
And while the lion has the various hiding-places 
that the forest afford him, from which he bounds 
upon his prey, so the devil has much better conceal- 
ment, and many more hiding-places from whence 
he attacks to destroy the sheep, and especially the 
lambs of Christ's flock, which flock alone is his prey. 
For he is the prince and power of the air, that spirit 
which now works in the hearts of the children of 
disobedience. And he goeth about as a roaring 
lion goeth about when he is seeking that which he 
may devour ; not with roarings, but with all the 
stealth and deceit that by his workings he can put 
into the hearts of the children of disobedience. 
And thus enthroned as the prince and power of the 
air, with his operations confined to the earth, he will 
continue to be such until shut up in the bottomless 
pit for a thousand years. And when he is released 
for a little season his operations will again be con- 
fined to earth, until, not as the king or ruler of per- 
dition, but as a subject for hell, he will be cast into 
the lake of fire, w^iich, according to the teachings 
of Scripture, will be the first hell, he ever was in, 
and the first time he ever was in it. 



The Finale of the Earth, the Righteous and the 
Wicked. 

" Seeing then that all these things shall be dis- 
solved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all 
holy conversation and godliness/' — II Peter ^ III ch., 
nth V, The being dissolved, the death or dissolution 
of the earth, and its resurrection, change or being 
made new, is not only in perfect harmony with the 
nature of things as a recovery from the curse and 
its effects, and its being fitted for the eternal abode 
of God's ransomed people ; but it is as clearly shown 
in the Scriptures as the life, death and resurrection 
of man. Hence, as when man had fallen and 
incurred the displeasure of the Almighty, and the 
sentence of death was pronounced upon him, so was 
the curse pronounced upon the ground for his sake. 
Thorns" and thistles it was to bring forth to him, yea, 
it was to be his sepulcher, it was to be a land of 
thorns and thistles, instead of everything that was 
good, wholesome and pleasant. It was to produce 
for him only in the sweat of his face. Toil and sor- 
row was all that it presented to his view; it was 
cursed for his sake. And who is it that cannot see 
that there is something wrong upon the face of the 
earth ? Who cannot see, amid all the sorrows and 
miseries of this life, that the present state of things 



197 

is not the work of an all-wise God, that it is not 
consistent with Divine wisdom to place man amid 
such a state of things as now exists, to toil through 
years of sorrow, to enjoy nothing except in part, 
and that only at the expense of twice or thrice its 
value in sorrowful toil, with the assurance before 
him that he is born to sorrow as the sparks fly 
upwards, and every circumstance that happens 
around him, all that he sees, hears, or is capable of 
comprehending, teaching him that the earth is 
cursed ? Yea, everything teaches us that it is not 
consistency to suppose that an all-wise God created 
man to live and toil, and toil to live, and live 
out his days in sorrow, just for the purpose of living 
a life that on such a basis would not be worth living 
for. 1^0, it is charging God foolishly ; it is altogether 
contrary to His wisdom. Hence it is evident that 
the present state of things did not always exist, and 
that they are not to be continued or be allowed to 
continue indefinitely. And it seems that men ought 
to be capable of comprehending the reality of the 
earth's being cursed, for whatever cause or by what- 
ever power, even if there w^ere no Scriptures to tell 
them that it was so. Yet, laying all this aside, and 
following the teachings of the Sacred Volume, we 
see that the earth is cursed, and that its dissolution 
is decreed. And as man was to die and return to 
his dust, so the earth was to die or be dissolved and 
return to its original state, without form and void ; 
and as the man was dead to himself and to all 
around him, and still lived unto his Creator, so the 



198 

eartli was to be dead to man and its present condition, 
yet not unto God. For as man, when resurrected 
or re-created, will be the same being, so when the 
earth is brought forth in all its Eden splendor, though 
new or made new, it will be the same earth, just 
as the man will be the same man. For as the work- 
manship which constituted the man was dissolved, 
so the workmanship of the earth is to be dissolved. 
Yet new things are not to be created, but old things 
are to be made new. For when He says, " Behold 
I make all things new," He does not say that He 
makes all new things. No, it is the old things which 
are to be made new. And what folly for anyone to 
admit that God created the earth and man, and then 
to contend against the idea of a resurrection or 
re-creation ; for, surely, if the creation of the earth 
and man is possible, its being re-created or made 
new is quite as possible, and much more probable, 
having the one fact to sustain the other. Hence, as 
regards the creation of the earth, its being cursed,- 
its life or duration, its death or destruction, its resur- 
rection or being made new, we have these facts as 
plainly taught and as pointedly presented as those 
embracing the past, the present and the future state 
of man. Thus, in the beginning God created the 
earth and the heavens in beauty and perfection, and 
the earth and everything that moved upon it reflected, 
as it were, the smile of God's countenance, for they 
were His workmanship, and God acquiesced in His 
work by declaring that everything which He had 
created was good. Thus God smiled upon all creation 



199 

and all creation smiled. But when man, unmindful 
of his solemn obligation to his Creator, who had 
endowed him with the dignifying attribute through 
which his obedience was to be the result of his own 
will, and the choice of life or the choice of death 
was to be his own choice; when man, unmindful 
of the position that he occupied, unmindful of that 
dignifying attribute that he possessed, which placed 
him second only to Divinity, stooped from his lofty 
and dignified position, and deigned and dared to 
accept the forbidden fruit from the hand of woman, 
and thus preferred her favor to that of his Creator, 
in order to punish him for his disobedience, the 
ground was cursed for his sake. Its beauties were 
transformed, its luxuries were tainted, the ever bril- 
liant heavens were beclouded, and storm and tempest, 
scorching heat and chilling winds, disease, anxiety 
and never-ceasing toil, pain, misery and death at once 
supplanted all that glorious precedence of this sad 
event. And thus it has continued for nearly six thou- 
sand years, without the least mitigation, or the least 
indication in the powers of nature that points to a 
recovery from that condition to which, through the 
disobedience of man, the earth was necessarily sub- 
jected. Thus proving that nature is not God, but that 
God is the God of nature, and that He can place her 
in chains and set her free at His pleasure. That " He 
speaks and it is done," and that nature only echoes 
the fact that she is servile, that she is not God, but 
that God is Jehovah. And as it is evident that the 
earth has lived out nearly all its days, and that the 



200 

destruction by fire of the present state of things, as 
presented in II Peter, Illd chapter, 10th verse, is 
God's own way of returning them to that which 
they were before the fall of man, and before the 
earth was infected with the curse which made its 
dissolution and return to its original condition neces- 
sary to its purification and cleansing from the curse 
and its effects, and its being renewed and fitted for 
the everlasting abode of his ransomed people ; this 
being God's own method, it is evident that when, as 
shown in the 13th verse, the earth is brought forth, 
though new, it will be the same earth, for its renew- 
ing will make it new, and its re-creation will con- 
stitute its being created. For the meek are to 
inherit the earth, and Abraham was promised the 
ground upon which he stood, '' and the kingdom and 
the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven 
is to be given to the people of the saints of the Most 
High God, and they shall reign on the earth." And 
the kingdom of Christ is to be a kingdom to which 
there is to be no end. And the kingdoms of this 
world are to become the kingdom of our God and of 
His Christ. Hence the kingdoms or dominions of 
this world are to constitute the kingdom of Christ, 
notwithstanding that this world, as it now exists, is 
to be destroyed. For He is to reign from the river to 
the ends of the earth, and the earth renewed is to be 
that earth to the ends of which He is to reign. And 
the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, 
is to be the greatness of His kingdom. He is to 
be king of kings and lord of lords ; that is. He 



201 

is to be king of kings as Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander 
and Julius C?esar were kings of kings ; and He is to 
reign in the New Jerusalem, which is to be the cap- 
ital of His kingdom in the new earth or the earth 
renewed, as literally as Nebuchadnezzar reigned in 
Babylon, or Julius C^^sar reis-ned in Rome. And His 
personal presence will be just as much a reality in 
the New Jerusalem, as it was when He stood before 
Pilate. Thus the finale of all the thread-work of 
the Scriptures, as regards the earth and its destiny, 
is consummated with the glorious realities of the 
kingdom of Christ and Christ its king, who is to 
reign over His ransomed people from the river to 
the ends of the earth. And thus the meek are to 
inherit the earth, and delight themselves in the 
abundance of peace. And that which God promised 
to Abraham before his death, that w^ill he realize in 
the new earth or the earth renew^ed, after his resur- 
rection, and so will all the righteous realize. For 
the glorious realities of the Kingdom of Christ are 
just the reality of their hope. And terrible as it is 
(and terrible enough it is), that which is pictured in 
the XXth of Revelations, is to be the finale of the 
wicked, '' For yet a little while and the wicked shall 
not be." '' The wicked shall be destroyed from ofl^* 
the face of the earth." " The transo-ressors shall 
be ruled out of it."" The lake of fire is their 
destiny. '' They shall consume, into smoke shall 
they consume away." They are to be destroyed; 
they are to be no more forever. For as the literal 
presence of the organic structure, in the case of the 



202 

saint, constitutes his existence, so the absence of 
the organic structure, in the case of the sinner, con- 
stitutes his non-existence. As the saint is consigned 
to eternal life, so the sinner is consigned to everlast- 
ing death, the one being that which the other is not. 
So that as the eternal life of the saint constitutes his 
reward^ so the everlasting death of the sinner constitutes 
his punishment. For as death is destroyed there can 
be no more death, and the saint is beyond its bounds 
forever. And as the resurrection is past and the 
wicked are destroyed thereafter, there is no more 
life forever, and so they are consigned to an ever- 
lasting death, which is their everlasting punishment. 



How it was that Moses was Present at the Transfig- 
uration. 

" And after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, 
and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a 
high mountain apart, And was transfigured before 
them : and His face did shine as the sun, and His 
raiment was white as the light. And behold, there 
appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with 
mm,''— Matthew, XVIL 

Here in the transfiguration we have a type of that 
reality — His coming and kingdom, or His presence in 
His kingdom — and here also is a representative of the 
living righteous, in the person of Elias, and a repre- 
sentative of the dead in the person Moses. But the 
question is, how came Moses there ? If man can be 
nowhere present except personal, how is it that 
Moses, who had died and was buried, could have 
been present with Christ and His companions on 
the mount, for he was there and talked with Jesus ? 
Tliis is forcing the truth fairly, for Moses was there 
as really as was Peter, James or John. But again, 
the question is, how cafne he there, for he had died 
and was buried ? This is easily accounted for, and 
only needs the plain language of Scripture and a 
little reason to remove all doubts, and make his 



204 

personal presence there as easily to be understood 
as though an angel had been there. For the Word 
says that " Michael the Archangel, when contend- 
ing with the devil, he disputed about the body of 
Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accu- 
sation, but said, the Lord rebuke thee.'^ Now, 
what did they want to dispute about the body 
of Moses for ? Where was the body of Moses ? 
Just prior to this event the body of Moses was just 
where it was buried, or otherwise it had returned to 
its dust ; and thus the case stood just prior to this 
event. But the most likely of the two is that it was 
just after his burial that this transpired. But let 
the case be as it may, the body of Moses was 
what was in dispute, but the devil could do noth- 
ing until Moses was or was to be resurrected ; 
neither was there any cause for action on his part, 
for so long as death reigned he was satisfied, but 
when there was a prospect of a resurrection to 
life, then he comes forward to contend against 
it. And because there are to be two resurrec- 
tions in the future, it does not follow that there 
has not been special resurrections in the past. For 
not only was Christ and many of the saints raised, 
but Jesus gives us plainly to understand that there 
were resurrections prior to that time. For, saith 
He, " As the Father raiseth the dead so the son 
quickeneth whom He will." Thus we see that the 
Father had already raised the dead, and why not 
Moses one of them ? Verily he was, or else he 
would not, he could not, have taken part at the 



205 

transfiguration, for the whole aftair was a personal 
affair. There was no spirit there. There were 
Peter, James and John, and these three w^ere the 
companions of Jesus, whom He took with Him to 
be witnesses of that which was there to transpire. 
And it was the man Jesus, the Son of God, the Son 
of Mary, who took them there, and was there and 
was transfigured before them. But when He was 
transfigured He was not transmuted, for the differ- 
ence between Him then and before consisted in the 
development of His Divine nature in that halo of 
glory that the Apostle endeavors to describe, and 
when this passed His appearance was the same as 
before. Thus it was the person Jesus before He 
was transfigured, the same person while trans- 
figured, and the same person afterwards, and the 
person whom they looked upon while on the 
cross was the same person that they looked upon 
while on the Holy Mount, whose appearance they 
describe as so glorious. Therefore it was the per- 
son Jesus who was there, and Elias was there, and 
of course personal, and his presence there was to 
establish the truth as presented in I Corinthians, 
XV, 51. And Moses was there to establish the 
fact that though a man die, yet shall he live again. 
For this man Moses had died and was buried, and his 
being dead, or his continuing in death, seems to have 
been something to which Satan paid particular atten- 
tion. For, in the first place, Moses was dead, and as 
long as he remained so Satan could do nothing; there 
was nothing for him to do. But God having made 



206 

his case a special one, and determined that he should 
be resurrected, dispatched Michael, the Archangel, 
to take possession of the body of Moses. And 
Satan, who had not feared to contend against God, 
did not fear to contend with this mighty messenger 
in order to prevent the resurrection of the man 
Moses. This is the only reason that can be given for 
the contention about his body, which resulted in the 
defeat of Satan and the resurrection of Moses. And 
therefore, the reason why Moses was at the transfig- 
uration was because he had been resurrected. He 
was there as literally as he was in Egypt ; he was there 
with Christ and His companions as really as He was 
with the Children of Israel, and if he had not been 
resurrected he could not have been there, for it was 
Moses and Elias who talked with Jesus, or else it 
was not Jesus who talked with them. It was Peter, 
James and John, Christ, Moses and Elias who were 
there. 



Who Preached to the Spirits in Prison ? 

" For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the 
just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, 
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by 
the spirit : By which also He went and preached to 
the spirits in prison ; Which sometime were disobe- 
dient, when once the long suffering of God waited 
in the days of Noah, while the ark w^as a prepar- 
ing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by 
^Y2itQv:'—I Peter, III ch, 18th, 19th and 20th vs. 

''Put to death in the flesh." 'So then He was 
dead and destitute of spirit, but He was " quickened 
by the spirit : By which also He went and preached 
unto the spirits in prison," that is by the spirit by 
which God went, not Christ, for Christ was put to 
death, and then He was quickened by this same 
spirit by which God went in the days of I^oah, and 
preached to those who were alive at that time. 

When did He go ? In the days of Noah. And 
how did He go ? Why, by His spirit. And this 
embraces God personally and God spiritually, and such 
in the days of Noah. So that it did not mean Jesus, 
but Jehovah, Whose spirit the Holy Ghost is. Hence, 
as He went there spiritually, and preached to them, 
so He went to the sepulcher, where His Son Jesus 
lay dead, and quickened Him, for Jesus was dead, 



208 

and the spirit which or by which God preached to 
the antediluvians hundreds of years before that 
time, went to the sepulcher of Jesus and quickened 
Him. So that it was not Jesus who went and 
preached by the spirit, or went by the spirit, but 
Jehovah, His Father, who had done it hundreds of 
years before Jesus was begotten by the Holy Ghost. 
Hence, as this is the positive reality of the case, the 
only difficulty, if any, is in the phraseology, that is, 
in the manner in which these two facts come to us. 
Yet, when the passage is properly analyzed and 
reason allowed to operate, all difficulty is easily 
removed. " For Christ once suffered for sins." This 
is one fact. " The just for the unjust." This is 
another fact. " That He might bring us to God." 
'This is another fact. " Being put to death in the 
fleshJ^ This is another fact. '' But quickened 
by the spiriV And this is another fact. Hence 
we see that He is understood before being, in put 
to death, and that of God is understood after 
spirit, in quickened by the spirit. And, there- 
fore, we see that the original or positive reality 
of the passage is that Christ, also, hath once suf- 
fered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He 
might bring us to God, He being put to death in tlie 
flesh but quickened by the spirit of God. By which 
also He, God, to whom Christ brought us, went and 
preached to the spirits in prison. So that if we 
accept the facts in our own phraseology, its sim- 
plicity becomes one of its prominent features, and 



209 

thus we read it : For Jesus Christ once suftered for 
sins; He, being just or perfectly innocent, suftered 
for or instead of the unjust or guilty, that He might 
secure our release from the condemnation which 
our guilt incurred, by His thus atoning for it, and so 
bring us to God, for He was put to death and so 
died in our stead ; but lipon the third day after His 
crucifixion God, His Father, quickened Him by 
His spirit. And then we would take up the other 
circumstance and describe it, or rather we would 
have taken it up before, inasmuch as it transpired 
thousands of years before the above. And perhaps 
we would say that in the days before the flood Noah 
spake and warned the people, as he was instructed 
by the Holy Ghost, the same as the prophets did in 
after times. And then we would have in our own 
mode of speaking the reality of the twentieth verse. 
Again, if we compare this, the 18th, 19th and 20th 
verses of I Peter, HI chapter, with that of Hebrews, 
V chapter, 6th and 7th verses, we see that the above 
solution is positively confirmed by both phraseology 
and fact. Sixth verse : " As He saith also in 
another place. Thou art a priest forever after the 
order of Melchisedec." Seventh verse : '' Who in 
the days of his flesh, when he had oftered up prayers 
and supplications with strong crying and tears unto 
Him who was able to save from death, and was 
heard in that he feared ; Though he were a son, yet 
learned he obedience by the thing which he suf- 
fered." Here, in the 7th verse, Who positively 
relates to Melchisedec, whereas taking the fact in 
9* 



210 

the case, Who positively relates to Christ. So that 
if we lay aside the fact and accept the phraseology, 
it was Melchisedec who did what the reality of the 
passage shows that Christ did. Therefore this is 
precisely the same in construction as the 18th and 
19th verses of III chapter of I Peter, except that it 
is by which in one and who in the other. So that in 
Hebrews Christ is meant, instead of Melchisedec, 
and in Peter, Jehovah is meant instead of His Son 
Jesus. And therefore we see that it was Jesus, the 
Son of God, who was dead, and that this same being 
was quickened by the same spirit by which God, 
His Father, preached to the antediluvians in the 
days of Noah. And whether the reality in the 
abstract, or as embraced in the present construc- 
tions, determined it, it was Jehovah, and not Jesus, 
who went by the spirit. For God is understood 
after spirit, in the 18th verse of I Peter, HI chapter, 
and thus dispenses with by also and He in the 19th 
verse. So that, according to both phraseology and 
fact, it was not Jesus, but Jehovah, who went and 
preached to the spirits who w^ere then in prison. 
And, therefore, to present the fact in our own 
phraseology, the simple and positive reality is, that 
after Christ had been put to death, God, His Father, 
quickened Him by His spirit, and that this spirit 
is the same spirit by which He inspired Noah, 
who proclaimed the Divine word to those around 
him, while, as God had commanded him, he was 
building the ark for his own safety. And, there- 



211 

fore, the answer is, that it was Jehovah, the Father 
of Jesus Christ, who went and preached to the 
spirits in prison many hundreds of years before 
Jesus Avas begotten. 



The Spirits in Prison. 

" For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the 
just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, 
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the 
spirit: By which also He went and preached unto 
the spirits in prison."— J Peter^ III cL, 18th and 
19th vs. Thus Christ died, "the just for the unjust, 
that he might bring us to God," He " being put to 
death in the flesh but quickened by the spirit," of 
Godj which, in the days of Noah, dictated to him 
that which he preached to those around him while 
the ark was a preparing. Therefore these spirits in 
prison are the persons who were disobedient in the 
days of Noah, and to whom the Gospel had been 
preached, so that the preaching of the Gospel is the 
preaching of God's truth, and no matter where or 
when preached, whether by the Prophets or by Jesus 
Christ, it is the dictates of the same spirit, and is 
the same one truth or Gospel. And thus all to 
whom the Word of God has been preached, whether 
dead prior to the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ or not, are to be judged by the same truth as 
men living then, for all liaving the same word of 
truth preached unto them, whether living or dead at 
that time, all are to be judged according to that one 
truth or Gospel that had been preached unto them. 



213 

Thus, the Gospel having been preached to those who 
were dead, who had lived in the days of Noah, it is 
plain to be seen that these spirits in prison are those 
persons who had lived in the days of Noah but who, at 
the time of Peter's writing, were dead, and who were 
referred to in the 6th verse of the IVth chapter : " For, 
for this cause was the Gospel preached also to them 
that are dead, that they might be judged according 
to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the 
spirit/' "Be judged according to men in the flesh," 
that is, as though they were then living. " But live 
according to God in the spirit,^' that is, the Word was 
preached to them that they might have eternal life 
the same as those to whom the Word was preached 
at that time. And having eternal life they would 
come forth at the resurrection as those would w^ho 
were then living, and so live according to God in 
the spirit, whicli spirit w^ould be their life, that is, if 
they had believed. And now the question is, how 
are these persons spirits, and what is the prison? 
The term spirit is so vague in its meaning, and 
covers so much ground, that its signification can 
only be determined by the manner in w^hich it is 
used, and the surroundings of the subject to which it 
is applied, and, of course is figurative or literal in 
its meaning. And as it is impossible for the dead 
to have the Gospel preached unto them, the term 
spirit, as applied to those who were in prison, must 
be figurative and represents those persons who lived 
in the days of Noah, and then had the Gospel 
preached unto them, w^ho were then dead and in 



214 

tlieir graves, which were their prison, and were 
spirits according to the phrases : These troublesome 
spirits, he is such a perverse spirit, he is a different 
spirit altogether. So that the spirits in prison, 
those dead ones who had lived in the days of Noah, 
and were such perverse spirits that even in the pres- 
ence of the building of the ark, they rejected the 
Word of God to their own destruction, and thus 
became the dead who had had the Gospel preached 
unto them, and who at the time of Peter's writ- 
ing were captives or prisoners, for though Christ 
had led captivity captive, the general releasing had 
not taken place, and these still remained in their 
graves, the prisoners of death, as plainly shown in 
the lid chapter of Job, where he says, '' Why died 
I not from the womb ? Why did I not give up the 
ghost when I came out of the belly ? Why did the 
knees prevent me, or why the breasts that I should 
suck? For now I should have lain still and been 
quiet, I should have slept : then had I been at rest, 
With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built 
desolate places for themselves ; Or with princes that 
had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Or as 
a hidden untimely birth I had not been ; as infants 
which never saw light. There the wicked cease 
from troubling and the weary be at rest. There 
the imsoners rest together ; they hear not the voice 
of the oppressor. The small and the great are there ; 
and the servant is free from his master." And so 
all who in the days of Noah had the Gospel preached 
unto them are there, for the prisoners rest together^ 



215 

the great and the small are there. Here we see that 
the little innocents, the kings, the counsellors and 
princes, that had gold, who filled their houses with 
silver, all rest together. They are the great and the 
small who in the grave, their prison, are the captives 
of death, for " there the prisoners rest together.'' 



Christ's Answer to the Thief. 

" And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me 
when thou comest into Thy kingdom. And Jesus 
said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt 
thou be with me in paradise. — Luke^ XXIII cL, 
42d and 43(i vs. 

There is a great deal of phraseology in the Scrip- 
tures that seems to baffle the wisdom of the present 
day, but the facts of Scripture, though so grossly 
perverted, when traced to or from their primitive 
sources, are simple and harmonious. But it is 
nothing strange concerning the phraseology, when 
^vve consider the different hands through which they 
have passed; and the fact that the Papacy had ruled 
supremely so long before the Reformation ; and the 
fact that the erroneous idea that at death all passed 
to heaven and received their reward, or went to 
perdition and were punished, had become the most 
prominent feature in the teachings of the Papal 
church. When these things are taken into consid- 
eration, it is not strange to suppose that the monster 
heresy concerning the future state had much to do 
with the phraseology of the Scriptures, and particu- 
larly of the New Testament, as it is now among us, 
and especially with respect to this subject, and in 
regard to this particular text it is evident that its 



217 

present construction was generated by or through 
the predominance of the great error concerning the 
future state. But if the text had been translated 
thus : Because thou has spoken thus, I say unto thee, 
that thou shalt be with me in paradise ; or had it 
been : I say unto thee this day, that thou shalt be 
with me in paradise — which would be in perfect 
harmony with the phraseology of those days — then 
the construction would be in harmony with all the 
facts that encircle the subject. But as it is, it is 
in accordance with the erroneous idea concerning 
the future state, which, during the supremacy of 
Papacy, did, and now does, absorb the thoughts of 
most teachers of Scripture, to the exclusion of every- 
thing that conflicts with it ; and so they have added 
error to error, until many of the vital truths ot 
Christianity are placed in obscurity, and these flying 
fancies not only flaunt but reign supremely. And 
through this mite of the translators^ phraseology, 
they would sacrifice those vital truths without which 
the whole compact would be a farce. But, placing 
the comma after day^ instead of after thee^ and the 
sentence constructed thus : Verily I say unto thee 
this day, that thou shalt be with me in paradise, it 
is in perfect harmony with all other Scripture. But 
the construction that makes it appear that upon that 
day the thief was with Ilim in paradise, is contrary 
to all truth. It makes false Christ's words to Mary, 
and is also at variance with His words to His disci- 
ples, when He said : '' Handle Me, and see ; for a spirit 
hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have." And 
10 



218 

this person who addressed them was the same person 
who addressed the thief, and who had lain in the 
grave till the third day, who after He had risen from 
the dead told Mary that He had not yet ascended. 
Thus He made them to understand plainly that He 
was the same persen then that He was before, and 
that His mission upon earth was not yet finished. 
And the fact that He had lain in the grave from the 
time of His crucifixion until His resurrection was 
so positively implied and so clearly understood that 
it is hardly common sense to suppose that it would 
have been expressed. And it should be remembered 
that the writers of those days wrote without periods, 
colons, commas, or any other points or stops. And 
hence it is evident that the inserting of the comma 
after thee^ and the present construction of the sen- 
tence, is in accordance with the erroneous idea that 
has been mentioned. And inasmuch as the original 
had no such pause to denote such a meaning, it is 
far more consistent to place the comma after day. 
Moreover, as this thing of pointing did not belong 
to the original, there can be no importance attached 
to the inserting of the comma after thee^ instead of 
after day^ except that it was the notion of the trans- 
lators concerning its meaning that induced it. So 
take out the comma and let all judge for themselves, 
for every one has as good a right to determine its 
meaning, in accordance with the language and sense, 
as the translators had. For it is the infallible Word 
of God that we are to depend upon and reverence, 
and not the fallible notions of its translators. Again, 



219 

with respect to the present construction, it is not in 
harmony with the request of the thief, or the nature 
of the case and its surroundings, but is altogether 
the contrary, and is in direct harmony with the 
heathen notion concerning the future state. For the 
request of the thief embraced the one simple fact, 
that is, that Christ would remember him when He 
came into His kingdom, just as Job implied that God 
would remember him in accordance with his 
request, that He would hide him in the grave, that 
He would give him a set time, and remember him. 
For at that time neither the thief nor anyone else had 
any idea of a kingdom this side of the resurrection, 
and hence, the object of the thief was to obtain 
through the promise of Christ the hope of Israel, 
the resurrection from the dead. And knowing that 
they were both to die, the thief realized that there 
was no hope this side of the resurrection, and he, 
looking beyond the resting in the grave, called upon 
Jesus to remember him when He came into His 
kingdom. Hence it is evident that in the answer 
of Jesus there was no such an idea conveyed as the 
present construction indicates. And how unreason- 
able to suppose that Christ would teach His disciples 
to look to the resurrection, and the establishing of 
His kingdom, and instruct them to teach the same, 
and then tell a thief that upon that day he should 
be with Him in paradise ; and how inconsistent to 
cling to such an idea, when everything teaches 
the contrary, with nothing but the winged fancy of 
the translators to establish it. Again, this part of the 



220 

history of that great event seems to be that which 
was told the writers by others, and notwithstanding 
that John was present and that Jesus conversed with 
him while hanging on the cross, it is evident that 
the conversation between the thief and Jesus, if 
such took place, escaped his notice, and it is evident 
that the writers upon this subject recorded this con- 
versation as told them, and not as they had heard or 
received it from any Divine authority. For John, 
who it seems would be the best authority, has noth- 
ing to say about it, and Matthew^ "says that the thieves 
that were crucified with Him cast the same in His 
teeth,'' that is, they derided Him the same as did the 
Jews ; not one of them, but both. And Mark, after 
describing the manner in which they mocked Him, 
says, '' and they that were crucified with Him reviled 
Him." Thus the testimony of these two broadly 
contrasts with that of the third, for Luke, who it 
seems would be the least authority for such a record, 
tells us that one of these thieves was quite a difier- 
ent being from the other, and treated the Lord 
Jesus in quite a different manner from the other, 
inasmuch that, in the most penitent manner, he 
asked the Lord to remember him when He came 
into His kingdom, and that the Lord's answer was, 
" Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with 
Me in paradise." And now that there is an error 
somewhere, the question is, where is it ? The truth 
is obvious, that is, that neither of the three saw or 
heard what transpired, but that Matthew and Mark 
were informed concerning the ill-treatment of the 



221 

thieves without anv discrimination between them, 
and that Luke was informed of both the ill-treat- 
ment of the one and the penitence of the other. 
And, notwithstanding that they ma}' have faithfully 
recorded the matter as it came to them, it is evident 
that they cannot all be correct. Hence it is certain 
that the question embraced in the request of the 
thief and the answer of Jesus is not to be settled 
according to any particular phraseology, but accord- 
ing to the facts of the case. And therefore, consid- 
ering the condition of the two, the fact that the Lord 
Jesus was about to give up the Ghost, and that the 
thief was expiating his crime beside Him, and fully 
realizing that he was soon to be numbered with the 
dead, it is evident that he looked forward to that 
glorious event which was the hope of Israel, the 
hope of Paul, the consolation of the afflicted Job, 
and the only thing that could satisfy David, and 
said, " Lord remember me when Thou comest into 
Thy kingdom." Thus there is nothing in or con- 
nected with the case to make it appear that the 
answer of Jesus was to the effect that upon that day 
he should be with Him in paradise. And the only 
thing that could have induced the present con- 
struction was the erroneous doctrine concerning the 
future state, and the only thing that has continued 
its existence in such a form has been the continu- 
ance of that same unreasonable and anti-scriptural 
idea that fills the fancies of so many thousands of 
the present day, to the almost utter exclusion of the 
fact that there will be such a thing as the reality of 



222 

a resurrection. Thus it is evident that if the storj 
as recorded by Luke be correct in fact, that the 
present construction is an error, and that the comma 
should be inserted after day instead of after thee^ or, 
as would be more in accordance with the facts in the 
case, to render it thus : Because thou hast not fol- 
lowed the example of thy companion and hast spoken 
thus, I say unto thee, that thou shalt be with Me 
in paradise. But, be this as it may, there is none 
under the necessity of adhering to the present con- 
struction ; so, as has been said, take out the comma, 
and all can judge for themselves, for this construction 
only constitutes or represents the idea of those who 
inserted it, and with this removed it will be easily 
seen that the request of the thief pointed to the 
resurrection from the dead, and that the answer of 
Jesus pointed with as mucli precision to the same 
great event. For the idea that death is an introduc- 
tion to a future state is as precisely heathen as the 
resurrection of the dead is precisely Christian. 



Those Who Have Fallen Asleep. 

" Now, if Christ be preached that He rose from 
the dead, how say some among you that there is no 
resurrection of the dead ? But if there be no resur- 
rection of the dead, then is not Christ risen : And 
if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, 
and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found 
false witnesses of God ; because we have testified of 
God that He raised up Christ : whom He raised not 
up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead 
rise not, then is not Christ raised : And if Christ be 
not raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your 
sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in 
Christ are perished." — I Corinthians, XV ch., 12th to 
18th vs. If those who had fallen asleep in Christ 
had perished, if Christ had not risen, then the 
realities of salvation are embraced in and depend 
upon the resurrection, and are not consummated at 
death, or even begun. But that destruction or per- 
ishing which would be the inevitable result of no 
resurrection, is begun, yea, consummated; for if, in 
the absence of the resurrection, all the righteous 
even are to perish, the idea that men live after they 
are dead, and before they are resurrected, is alto- 
gether out of the question. For the language of 
the Apostle proves positively that in the absence of 



224 

the resurrection they had perished. Now, if it were 
as so many teach, that at death the righteous go to 
heaven, notwithstanding that they place them in 
coffins and bury them in the ground, as Paul very 
well knew they did ; if they go to heaven and sur- 
round the throne of glory or become angels, how is 
it that Paul tells us such a story as this, that unless 
they were resurrected they had perished ? Here he 
teaches plainly that those who had died were not 
angels or spirits, but that they were dead, and that 
unless they were resurrected they had perished. 
Aside from the resurrection, there was no future 
for them ; their existence had ceased forever. For 
Christ, being the resurrection and life, without that 
resurrection and life those beings would never again 
exist. For the natural life having been spent and 
ceased, the bodies having returned to dust and the 
dust to the earth as it was, and the spirit to God, 
who gave it, the first requisite to a future existence 
was the resurrection or re-creation of those bodies, 
that they might receive the eternal spirit or be 
brought into existence by it, and thus again become 
living souls. Not natural bodies, the life of which 
is the blood, but spiritual bodies, the life of which 
is to be the eternal spirit, which is the eternal life. 
But those whose faith comes within the bounds of 
spiritualism and transmigration, based upon that 
heretical foundation which they call a glorious mys- 
tery, cannot accord with such plain teaching as this. 
For as men cannot serve God and mammon, neither 
can they believe truth and error, and thus it is 



225 

nothing strange that they should lay aside or 
obscure the resurrection, for why should they want 
to be raised up at the last day ? what do they want 
with that burdensome body or shell of corruption as 
they make it to appear ? Why is it that they, hav- 
ing got out of it through the gate of death, and 
escaped to the realms of bliss, should think of 
returning to that eartlily tenement from which they 
had such a glorious exit ? No ; the fact is, that 
their teachings are not in harmony with the resur- 
rection, but are more in harmony with the teachings 
of the heathen general, who, when before the walls 
of Jerusalem, found it necessary to address his sol- 
diers upon what he thought to be the immortality 
of the soul. And when one is honest enough to 
mark the similarity between the teachings of this 
Roman dignitary and the teachings of those who 
place the resurrection in obscurity, and teach that 
at death men become angels or spirits, that they 
pass to the celestial clime and receive their reward 
in heaven, it is hard for any one to believe their 
teachings in respect to the future state to be any- 
thing other than heathenism, as is plainly pictured 
in the following : When a breach had been made 
in the wall of the ill-fated Jerusalem, Titus, seeing 
that to carry his point by gaining possession of that 
breach, that loss of life, and perhaps to a great 
extent, was inevitable; that death stared in the face 
of those who dared to approach it, called around 
him his chosen warriors, and in substance thus 
addressed them : " Inasmuch as all men have to die, 



226 

and inasmuch as those who are of a cowardly spirit 
are to be despised, and as it is only a question of a 
little time as to whether we die now or hereafter, 
and as to die gloriously ought to be the great object 
of our lives, it becomes you, notwithstanding that 
the achievement of this victory may cost the mor- 
tality of some of you, to display the valor and main- 
tain the dignity of Roman soldiers, and thereby earn 
the rew^ard of those who die gloriously. For they 
become good demons and inherit the air called ether 
among the stars.'' Thus Titus taught his soldiers that 
at death they would pass to the celestial clime, and 
there enjoy everlasting bliss, just as is taught, with 
few exceptions, from the pulpit of our day. And if 
Titus had directed the minds of his soldiers to the 
resurrection, then he would have been teaching 
them Scripture, but as it was he did not know or 
believe the Scriptures, and therefore he taught them 
that heathenism which, through the apostasy of the 
church, is so popularly taught at the present day, 
that is that at death the good pass from hence to the 
celestial regions and become angels, or, as Titus 
has it, good spirits, and receive their reward in the 
enjoyment of eternal felicity. This they teach with 
nothing but assertion and fancy to support it, while 
every sentence of Scripture that bears directly upon 
the subject is to the contrary. Now the question is, 
whose religion or what religion is this that is taught 
at the present day ? Is it that which Titus taught, 
or that which Paul preached ? For Christ says that 
he that believeth in Him He will raise him up at 



227 

tlie last day. Titus says that they are up. And 
many of these modern believers will tell you in the 
most emphatic manner that their dead friends are 
angels in heaven. Thus the time seems to have 
come when men do not only love darkness rather 
than light, but when they have the audacity to come 
to the light with their darkness and tell us that it is 
light. But what a contrast between this darkness 
and this light which the Apostle casts upon the 
subject. For when Paul stood and answered for 
himself before King Agrippa, his efibrts were to con- 
vince him and those who were with him, that the 
dead would rise, that there would be a resurrec- 
tion of the dead ; they were not to prove that the 
dead were alive in heaven, /or this ivas the difference 
betiveen them. The heathen believed in spirits, or the 
spiritital existence of those who had passed away, but 
Paul taught that they were dead, and that they 
would be raised from the dead. He taught them con- 
cerning his hope, and his hope was the hope of 
Israel, and the hope of Israel was the resurrection 
from the dead, and this was the hope of every primi- 
tive Christian, and they had no other hope ; thus 
all that Scripture tells us of life hereafter is through 
the resurrection, and though blessed are the dead 
which die in the Lord, it is because they rest from 
their labors, for sleep is rest, and Christ called being 
dead asleep ; thus this sleep that they sleep is their 
rest, for it is not the living, but the dead, that rest. 
And the reason why they are blessed is because they 
are that class of dead that die in the Lord. So that 



228 

all that is death points to the grave, and all that is 
life points to the resurrection. And it seems that 
all ought to realize this fact when they look back 
and see the Lord Jesus as He stood before the peo- 
ple, declaring to the world that '' He was the resur- 
rection and the life, that the hour was coming in 
the which all that were in their graves should hear 
His voice and should come forth, they that had done 
good unto the resurrection of life, and they that 
had done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." 
And now, let heathen hope be what it may, this 
was the hope of Israel, this was the hope of Paul, 
the hope of every primitive Christian ; there is no 
other hope. For if in the absence of the resurrec- 
tion they that have fallen asleep in Christ have per- 
ished, it must require the resurrection to bring 
them to life that they perish not. But those who 
entertain the ideas of Titus do not care whether 
there be any resurrection or not, for as they sup- 
pose, or try to suppose, that at death they enter 
upon the realities of eternal life, it is all that 
they trouble themselves about. But what in lan- 
guage could more flatly contradict and more posi- 
tively condemn such teachings, and prove them to 
be the offspring of heathenism in their origin, and 
contrary to anything that in truth might be called 
the reality of the Holy Scriptures, than the declara- 
tion of the Apostle that in the absence of the resur- 
rection all who had fallen asleep in Christ had 
perished. 



Dives and Lazarus. 

" There was a certain rich man which was clothed 
in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously 
every day. And there was a certain beggar named 
Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores. 
And desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell 
from the rich man's table : Moreover the dogs came 
and licked his sores, And it came to pass, that the 
beggar died, and was carried by the angels into 
Abraham's bosom : the rich man also died and was 
buried ; And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in 
torments, and seeth Abraham afar ofi*, and Lazarus 
in his bosom. And he cried, and said. Father Abra- 
ham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he 
may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my 
tongue; for I am tormented in this fiame. But 
Abraham said. Son, remember that thou in thy life- 
time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Laza- 
rus evil things : but now he is comforted and thou 
art tormented. And beside all this, between us and 
you there is a great gulf fixed : so that they which 
would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can 
they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then 
he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou 
wouldst send him to my father's house : For I have 
five brethren ; that he may testify unto them, lest 



230 

they also come into this place of torment. Abraham 
saith unto him, They have Moses and the Prophets ; 
let them hear them. And he said, Nay, Father 
Abraham : but if one went unto them from the dead, 
they will repent. And he said unto him, If they 
hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they 
be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.'' — 
Luke XVI^from 19th v. 

The fact that this language is figurative is so 
plainly shown upon its face, and is so clearly taught 
by all the vital truths of Scripture, that to attempt 
to prove it such seems like striving to do that which 
is already done. But when we consider the fact 
that there are so many who accept its meaning as 
literal, and so few that regard it in the sense which it 
is intended, the first thing necessary to know is that 
it is figurative. It is figurative, first, because it rep- 
resents the two extremes — wealth, with all that it 
could impart, and poverty in its lowest grade — as 
shown in the 19th and 20th verses. It is figurative, 
in that it shows how little the poor ask of the rich, 
and how ungratefully that little is often refused, as 
shown in the 21st verse. It is figurative in that it 
points to a time that is far in the future, as shown 
in the 22d and 23d verses ; for the beggar was dead 
and the rich man was dead and buried, and the 
spirit does not go to hell, nor to Abraham, but to 
God who gave it. It is figurative in that it shows 
that with the termination of the natural life the 
destiny of man is fixed, and that there is not, there 
cannot be, any communication with the dead ; and 



231 

that for one that is dead to communicate with the 
living, he must first be raised from the dead — that 
is, be made to live again — as shown in the last five 
verses. And now, as regards the views of those 
who understand, or think they do, that there w^as a 
Dives and a Lazarus, and that they were the one in 
Abraham's bosom, and the other in hell ; that they 
were in reality there, and that the conversation 
mentioned really took place, and that it is not figur- 
ative. In regard to these views it is only necessary 
to point to the fact that if it required the resurrec- 
tion of Lazarus from the dead before he could testify 
to the brethren of Dives, it would require the resur- 
rection of both Lazarus and Dives, to make their 
presence a reality in Abraham's bosom and in 
hell. And inasmuch as God has appointed a day in 
the which He will judge the world, what incon- 
sistency to suppose that reward and punishment is 
to precede judgment. Hence, inasmuch as the 
distinction between the conditions of the two beings, 
each of which represented his class, is pictured so 
plainly, and periods of time and circumstances so 
remote are referred to, it is but common sense to 
accept its meaning as figurative. For Lazarus was 
about as literally in Abraham's bosom as Abraham 
saw Christ's day literally and was glad. And Dives 
w^as in hell about as much as Jonah was, or perhaps 
less, for Dives is represented as lifting up his eyes 
in hell and crying unto Abraham, and Jonah is rep- 
resented as being in hell and crying to God, as he 
says : " Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou 



232 

heardest my voice." Therefore, this is one hell. 
And in Deuteronomy, XXIIId and 22d, we read of 
the lowest hell; and so there must be more than 
one. And in Isaiah, LVIIth and 9th, we read of 
one who had debased himself even unto hell. And 
this must surely be a different one from that of 
Jonah's. And, in Revelation, XXth and 13th, we 
read that the sea, and death, and hell delivered up 
the dead which were in them, and this most cer- 
tainly is a different one from that which Jonah was 
in, for that was a hell that was a hell of the living, 
not of the dead. And, in the 20th verse, death and 
hell were cast into the lake of fire. And hence we 
may see the folly of supposing that a reality existed 
in the case of Dives and Lazarus. Yet there is a 
perdition for the workers of iniquity, a literal lake 
of fire, a reality of things that is to be after the last 
resurrection ; and as that lake of fire is also called 
hell, it is evident that there is a figurative, as well 
as a literal signification of the term hell; for, as 
Christ tells us that God is able to destroy both body 
and soul in hell, and gives us plainly to understand 
that those who do not fear Him are thus to be 
destroyed^ this, the lake of fire, is the hell in whichj 
they are to be destroyed. Hence, this being the 
hell in which they are to be destroyed, and being 
the only hell that denotes a reality of punishment, 
all others, if embracing the question of punishment, 
must be figurative in their signification. 



Our Earthly House of this Tabernacle. 

" For we know that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, 
a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed 
upon with our house which is from heaven.^' — II 
Corinthians^ V ch. " Our earthly house of this taber- 
nacle " is no other than the world in which we live. 
For it is our tabernacle that has the house, which 
house is to be dissolved. But, notwithstanding its 
dissolution, we know that we have " a building of 
God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens," and no matter what the opinions of men 
may be concerning that house, we know that we 
have it, and that when the present house of our 
tabernacle is dissolved, that it will be the next house 
of our tabernacle. " For in this we groan, '^ that is, 
we ourselves groan, but in that we ourselves will not 
groan, therefore " we earnestly desire to be clothed 
upon with our house which is from heaven,'' that is, 
that eternal house which is now in heaven and is to 
come from heaven, " if so be that being clothed we 
shall not be found naked,'' or destitute of a house. 
" For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, 
being burdened," that is, this tabernacle which 
has the earthly house. " Not for that we would be 
10* 



234 

unclothed/' that is, not that our condition should 
be made worse, and that notwithstanding that in our 
natural lives we are burdened, we should desire that 
which is worse, even death, but we desire to be 
clothed upon " that mortality might be swallowed 
up of life." That is, that this earthly house of our 
tabernacle might be changed for the eternal one, 
which is now in heaven, with which Paul earnestly 
desired to be clothed upon, when it should come 
from heaven. And now, says Paul, '' He that hath 
wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also 
hath given us the earnest of the spirit." And the 
earnest of the spirit is a foretaste and witness of the 
life which is to be the result of our being clothed upon 
with our house which is from heaven, not that we 
were to go to heaven and get it, but it was to come 
from heaven to us. Then Paul says, '' Therefore 
we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are 
at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. 
(For we walk by faith, not by sight,) We are confident, 
I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body 
and to be present with the Lord." " At home in the 
body we are absent from the Lord." While we are 
in this natural state we are absent from the Lord, 
" but we walk by faith," and so look forward to that 
time when in an immortal state we shall be present 
with Him. '' Wherefore we labor, that whether 
present or absent, we may be accepted of Him. For 
we must all appear before the judgment seat of 
Christ ; that every one may receive the things done 
in the body, according to that he hath done, whether 



235 

it be good or bad." " Done in the body^'' that is, done 
in this life, which is represented by the term body, 
just as Paul meant when he said at home in the body ; 
and how phiinly this presents the fact that we cannot 
be mortal and immortal at the same time. For Paul 
desired not to be in the mortal but the immortal 
state, and shows us plainly that he had to be in the 
one or the other, by desiring that he might be 
clothed upon with his house from heaven, so that 
mortality might be sivalloived up of life. That is, that 
he might change this natural or temporary life for 
the glorious realities of eternal life, and then he 
points us to the time when this is to be brought to 
pass. For, says he, " we must all appear before the 
judgment seat of Christ," which is to be preceded 
by the resurrection and personal presence of every 
soul, for we can be nowhere present except per- 
sonal, for we are not spirits or spiritual beings, but 
personal beings, and as our presence here is the 
result of our being created, so our presence here- 
after will be the result of our being resurrected or 
re-created. 



Of Michael or the Michaels. 

The unnatural idea of mystery concerning the 
nature of Christ, which is one of the plainest revela- 
tions of Scripture, has become so undaunted in its 
operations that, as a part of this mystery or mystical 
complication, Michael or the Michaels have been pre- 
sented to the world as what might be properly termed 
the untransmigrated Christ. And therefore, it is 
proper that the nature and office of this or these cari- 
catures should be seen and understood as they are 
prseented in the Sacred Volume ; hence, in Daniel, f I 
Xth chapter, 12th and 13th verses, we read : " Then 
said he unto me, fear not, Daniel : for from the first day 
that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to 
chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, 
and I am come for thy words. But the prince of 
the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty 
days : but lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came 
to help me ; and I remained there with the kings of 
Persia." Here we see that this Michael was one of 
the chief princes ; that is, he was one of a number, 
all of whom were chief princes, and therefore he 
might have been one of ten, twenty, a hundred or 
a thousand, just such chief princes as he was. For 
this band to which he belonged was a band of chief 
princes, whose number is not defined. But the fact 



237 

that he was one of a number just such as himself, is 
positively affirmed. Hence, if he had been the Mes- 
siah, there might have been a thousand more just 
such Messiahs as he. And '' Michael, your prince,'^ 
mentioned in the 21st verse, is that one of the chief 
princes mentioned in the 13th verse. And the rea- 
son why he was called his prince was because he was 
that one of the chief princes which was favoring and 
forwarding the business which particularly con- 
cerned Daniel. And when again it is said in chap- 
ter Xllth, 1st verse : " At that time shall Michael 
stand up, the great prince which standeth for the 
children of the people," it is the same Michael 
mentioned in the 13th and 21st verses of the Xth 
chapter, engaged in the same manner, attending to 
the same or similar business. So that this Michael 
of the Xllth chapter is the same one of the chief 
princes of which there might have been a thousand 
more just such as he. For had Michael been 
assigned some other position, and one of his fellows 
being appointed to his, they would call him Christ 
the same as they do Michael. And if any other one 
of the thousand had been appointed to occupy this 
particular position, he would be their Christ the 
same as the others. So that if any one of a thou 
sand could be their Messiah, there could be a thou- 
sand as easily as one. Therefore we see how 
inglorious and foreign to anything that comes 
within the bounds of consistency is this so-called 
mystery concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. For 
they are not satisfied with teaching that there 



288 

is one God, who is the Father of Jesus Christ, and 
that there is no God but the Father, that Jesus was 
the Son of Mary, and also the Eternal Son of God, 
and always was God, notwithstanding that there is 
no God but the Father, and that though God was 
the Father of Jesus, Jesus was the true Eternal 
God, and that notwithstanding that Jesus was the 
Son of the living and true God, He was that God 
whose Son He was ; but they have added to this 
chaotic mass of heretical stupidity the idea that one 
of the chief princes also was Christ, to which num- 
ber it is plain to be seen that they have opportunity 
to add a thousand more. 



Melchisedec, the Order of Melchisedec, and Christ 
After His Order. 

As saith the Apostle : " Though He were a Son, 
yet learned He obedience by the things which He 
suffered." So this Son learned obedience by suffer- 
ing these things. (So, certainly He did not know 
it before, or else He would not have had it to learn.) 
And being made perfect (so He was not perfect 
before). He became the author of eternal salvation 
to all them that obey Him. " Called of God, a 
high priest after the order of Melchisedec." That 
is, after He had been made perfect by the things 
w^hich He suffered, then it was that He became a 
high priest after the order of Melchisedec. Hence, 
no matter what the order of Melchisedec is, Christ 
is a priest after this order. Yet Christ had both 
father and mother, but Melchisedec had neither. 
Christ's descent, according to the flesh, was from 
David, but Melchisedec was without descent. Christ 
had beginning of days and end of life, but Melchis- 
edec had neither. Thus it is plain that Christ was 
not such a being as Melchisedec, but a priest after 
the same order, w^ho, after He had learned obedience 
by the things which he suffered, had died and had 
risen from the dead no more to die, death having 
no more dominion over Him, in eternity ; He 



240 



entered upon the office of high priest, and was as 
Melchisedec and after the same order. For Mel- 
chisedec had no affinity to time, he was a creature 
of eternity, he was a being whom God had created 
as angels are created, who have nothing to do with 
time. For time is but as a coil in eternity, which 
that same eternity absorbs as it is unrolled, until 
at last exhausted, eternity is the same eternity and 
time is no more. Thus time, being but a spot in 
eternity, whoever is created or exists independent of 
this world has nothing to do with days, but belongs 
to eternity. And this being after the order of 
Melchisedec is only as appertaining to His office as 
priest, which office He did not fill until He had been 
made perfect through His sufferings and after His 
resurrection. Hence, when He was done with time 
and entered upon eternity. He entered upon His 
office as high priest after the order of Melchisedec. 
For Melchisedec and this order being independent of 
time, Christ must of necessity enter upon eternity 
prior to His being a high priest after this order. 
Thus it is that Melchisedec was a being without 
father, mother or descent, without beginning of 
days or end of life. And thus Christ as a priest is 
a priest after this order. 



The Apostles' Faith in Christ. 

What the Apostles thought about the nature of 
Christ, or rather, what they knew, their faith in 
Him as inferred from what they said concerning 
Him, from what they told Jesus and what Jesus did 
not contradict but more fully explained, is shown 
in the conversation between Jesus and the two who 
journeyed from Jerusalem to Emmaus, when, in 
reply to His question concerning their conversation, 
Cleopas, answering, said unto Him, "Art Thou 
only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast uot known 
the things which are come to pass there in these 
days ? And He said unto them, what things ? And 
they said unto Him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, 
which was a prophet mighty in deed and word 
before God and all the people : And how the chief 
priests and our rulers delivered Hhn to be con- 
demned to death, and have crucified Him." This 
was their mournful story, and they manifested their 
despair by adding, " But we trusted that it had 
been He which should have redeemed Israel." Thus, 
when Jesus was among His disciples, they had a 
lively hope, for they supposed that He would restore 
the kingdom of Israel, and again establish the throne 
of David. They had followed Him through all the 
scenes that preceded the triumphant entry into 
11 



242 

Jerusalem; they had witnessed His power, and saw 
the authority that He exercised in the Temple ; they 
had looked upon Him as their Lord and Master, 
and through all their pilgrimage with Him they 
had never met with a failure. When they were 
needy their wants were supplied, w^hen they were 
in difficulty it was always overcome. They had 
witnessed His miracles, they understood His power, 
they knew Him to be mighty in word and deed. 
He was the great one in whom all their hopes were 
concentrated. But after they had witnessed the 
scene in the garden they began to despair of that 
which they had hoped for, and, following Him to the 
judgment hall, and witnessing that which transpired 
there, their case became more hopeless still, and one 
even despaired and turned his back upon Him. But 
some, faithful to the last, follow^ed Him to the cruci- 
fixion, and there beheld the last breathings of Him 
in w^hom all their hopes were concentrated, and then 
their hope was gone. Thus they realized their situ- 
ation, because they understood the nature of death, 
that it was the end of life, and that between it and 
the resurrection there was no existence, and " they 
knew not the Scriptures that He was to rise again 
the third day." Now, if the ideas of the disciples 
concerning death had been in accordance with 
believers generally of the present day, their hope, 
instead of being gone, would have been strengthened, 
for they would have supposed that He had gone to 
heaven, that He had appeared in the presence of 
the Father, and was the mighty monarch reigning 



243 

most gloriously, who soon would achieve for them 
all that their hopes embraced, and that they would 
soon be transported to that same glorious abode. 
But those who understood the nature of death and 
the realities of the teachings of their Lord and 
Master, did not look to heaven then for the object of 
their affections, but to tlie tomb of Joseph, where 
they knew they had lain Him. Moreover, there was 
no spiritualism connected with His case ; there was 
no appearing, not the least shadow of Him; no 
manifestation, however faint, to denote an existence 
between His death and resurrection. No, there was 
not such a thing thought of; for when they sought 
Him they sought Him at the tomb, and when they 
missed Him it was their Lord that they missed. And 
the wonderful event of His resurrection, or His being 
brought to life again, transpired at the tomb. And 
to this being, whom they had laid in the tomb, was 
directed every thought that was expressed and every 
action connected with the case. There was not so 
much as a dream concerning His being alive between 
His death and resurrection. Thus we see that death 
absorbed all the hope of His disciples, that with His 
death it died. And hence the language of the 
Apostle, " He hath begotten us again unto a lively 
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
dead." And what nonsense it would be to talk of 
being begotten again unto a lively hope unless that 
hope was gone, for, if that hope had not been gone, 
it would not only not have been necessary but 
impossible to have begotten it again. But now, 



244 

says the Apostle, " He hath begotten us again unto 
a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
from the dead;" thus showing that Jesus was dead 
and their hope gone, and that unless Jesus was 
resurrected they had no Saviour ; that He had 
ceased to exist, and upon His resurrection depended 
His future existence, and that if He had not been 
resurrected He would have remained in the grave 
and this Holy One would have seen corruption. 
But David said, " Thou wilt not sulBfer Thine Holy 
One to see corruption.'' Thus it is that God hath 
begotten us again unto a lively hope, for He raised 
this Holy One from the dead so that He saw no 
corruption. Thus their hope that was lost in His 
death was renewed by His resurrection; thus we 
see that the loss of their hope was the result of 
death, and the renewing of their hope was the 
result of life ; thus as life is a reality so death is a 
reality ; the one is that which the other is not. And 
thus the disciples realized it, and thus they have 
taught that as life constitutes an existence, so death 
constitutes a non-existence. 



The Death of Christ. 

" And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud 
voice, saying, ' Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani ? ' 
which is, being interpreted. My God, My God, why 
hast thou forsaken me ?" And when lie had cried 
again with a loud voice He gave up the ghost. 
Inasmuch as the nature of God, the nature of Christ 
and the nature of man have been subjects of special 
consideration, so this, the nature of death, as realized 
by our Saviour, should be especially understood. 
For it had not only the simple importance of death 
attached to it, but it embraced a significance peculiar 
only to itself, and was brought about through that 
peculiar operation by which His death became con- 
firmatory of His teachings concerning the reality of 
His nature and life. For one of the great objects 
of His teachings was to convince His disciples and 
the world that He was not only man, but that He 
was also God, and that there were not two Gods, but 
that God was one, and that the God that He was 
was the Father in Him. As He taught when 
"- Philip said unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, 
and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I 
been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not 
known me, Philip ? He that hath seen Me, hath 
seen the Father, and how say est thou then, show us 



246 

the Father ? Believest thou not that I am in the 
Father, and the Father in Me ? the words that I 
speak unto you, I speak not of Myself: but the 
Father that dwelleth in me. He doeth the works." 
Thus the great truth which Jesus endeavored to 
impress upon the minds of His followers was that 
He was in the Father, and that the Father was in 
Him ; that they were the same one God. For it 
was not only that the Father was in the Son, but 
also that the Son was in the Father, thus showing 
the oneness of their existence. And again He 
endeavors to impress this truth upon their minds by 
exhorting them, when He says, '' Believe Me that 
I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else 
believe Me for the very works' sake," which seems 
equivalent to saying that if you will not believe my 
words, believe the works that I do, for though man 
may speak the words that I speak, the works that I 
do it is impossible for man to do. Therefore, if 
according to my words ye will not believe that I 
am God, believe the works that I do which none 
but God can do, that ye may believe that I am in 
the Father, and that the Father is in Me ; therefore 
when Christ hung upon the cross, and the natural 
life was nearly spent, He realized that which He 
had never realized before, and exclaimed : My God, 
My God, why hast thou forsaken Me ? And when 
He had cried aloud again, immediately He gave up 
the ghost. Thus God forsook Him ; His Divinity 
took its flight, and the being Jesus was dead. And 
this God that forsook Him was the Father which 



247 

was in Him, and this being a part of Himself, He 
could no longer exist, but gave up the ghost, and 
was dead. And thus again God was God, and man 
was man, until the resurrection of that same Jesus 
Christ who through the eternal spirit had offered 
Himself a sacriiice, was raised by the powder of that 
same Eternal God whose nature or self, then as 
before, constituted His Divinity; and thus again^ 
though united to God and to man by being of the 
real nature of both. He was neither Mary nor 
Jehovah, but was Their Son Jesus Christ, His 
Own Self. 



INDEX 



Page. 

Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the Son of Man 19 

Jesus Christ what God, His Father, made Him 23 

God, a Personal Being 25 

God, the Father 32 

The Spirit of God 35 

The Oneness of the Two Distinct Beings 40 

Free Agency and Foreordination 42 

Jesus Christ's First Existence 45 

In the Beginning was the Word 48 

The World Knew Him Not 49 

The Word was made Flesh 51 

I Came Forth from the Father 53 

For Thou Lovedst Me 56 

Sent Into the World 58 

Though He was Eich, yet for Our Sakes He became Poor. 62 

The Falsity of being Equal to God 65 

The Reality of that which is Taught in Collossians 66 

Christ Glorified with His Father's Own Self 69 

The Family of Jesus 72 

The Mother of Jesus Christ 78 

The Union of God and Man 80 

Immortality 86 

Faith 92 

Predestination 95 

Mystery * , 100 

The Word 104 

The Valley of Dry Bones 106 

Resurrection Ill 



250 

The Mind Not the Spirit 115 

The Physiologist and the Mind 121 

Conversion 128 

Doubts After Conversion 138 

Communion 140 

Baptism 146 

The Soul 159 

The Spirit of Man 177 

The Judgment and the Judge 183 

The Devil, or Satan, and Hell 192 

The Finale of the Earth, the Kighteous and the Wicked.. 196 

How it was that Moses was at the Transfiguration 203 

Who Preached to the Spirits in Prison. 207 

Of the Spirits in Prison 212 

Christ's Answer to the Thief. 216 

Of Those who have Fallen Asleep 223 

Dives and Lazarus 229 

Our Earthly House of this Tabernacle 233 

Of Michael or the Michaels 236 

Melchisedec 239 

What the Apostles Knew about the Nature of Christ 241 

The Death of Christ 245 



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